RSS 1.0Clinical Microbiology (Theses and Dissertations)
Recent Submissions
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An Investigation into the Epidemiology and Genetic Relatedness of pig and human Clostridioides difficile isolates in Ireland
(Trinity College Dublin. School of Medicine. Discipline of Clinical Microbiology, 2024)Historically, Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) has been associated with nosocomial diarrheal illness in older, immunocompromised patients, particularly in those on long-term antibiotics. However, cases of C. difficile ... -
Diverse Roles for the Extracellular Glycome of Extra-intestinal Pathogenic Escherichia coli in Serum Resistance and more
(Trinity College Dublin. School of Medicine. Discipline of Clinical Microbiology, 2023)Extra-intestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC) is a major cause of urinary tract infections, bacteraemia, and sepsis. This laboratory, among others, has previously shown that prototypic urosepsis strain CFT073 is ... -
Evaluating the role of angiogenesis in disease behaviour and therapy response in ulcerative colitis
Introduction Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory condition with a significant impact on quality of life. In this thesis two small molecule anti-angiogenic and anti-inflammatory agents were used to treat tissue ... -
Evaluation of Next-Generation Sequencing to Investigate the Epidemiology of Clostridioides difficile Infection
Introduction: Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) is an anaerobic bacteria, which can cause gastrointestinal infection. There are approximately 2,000 cases of C. difficile infection (CDI) diagnosed in Ireland per year, ... -
Evaluation of an in-house six-well screening plate as a means of detecting phenotypic triazole resistance in St. James's Hospital, Dublin with emphasis on Aspergillus fumigatus
(Trinity College Dublin. School of Medicine. Discipline of Clinical Microbiology, 2022)Aspergillus fumigatus is a ubiquitous saprophytic mould fungus found in nature. This fungus is present in the air, in soil, in foliage in our food stock and on inanimate surfaces. For healthy individuals, A. fumigatus poses ... -
Investigating the Role of Extracellular Polysaccharides in Biofilm Formation of Klebsiella pneumoniae
(Trinity College Dublin. School of Medicine. Discipline of Clinical Microbiology, 2020)Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) is the most significant and clinically relevant species in the Klebsiella genus of Enterobacteriaceae and is the causative agent of a variety of infections, including pneumonia, urinary ... -
Regulation of Antigen 43, a phase-variable autoaggregation factor of Escherichia coli
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). School of Medicine. Discipline of Clinical Microbiology, 2003)The Antigen 43 protein (Ag43) of Escherichia coli, encoded by the agn43 gene, has previously been shown to be expressed in a phase-variable manner. A plasmidborne fusion of the agn43 regulatory region to the reporter gene ... -
Inhibition of K-BALB murine tumours using Semliki Forest virus and its derived factor
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). School of Medicine. Discipline of Clinical Microbiology, 2005)The induction of cytopathic effects in tumour cells, often by apoptosis, is the primary goal of most non-surgical cancer therapies. Cancer gene therapy represents a variety of potentially therapeutic strategies involving ... -
Characterisation of the Elastin Binding Protein (EbpS) of Staphylococcus aureus
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). School of Medicine. Discipline of Clinical Microbiology, 2001)Staphylococcus aureus expresses an array of surface proteins that promote interaction of the bacterium with the host. Some surface proteins promote binding to components of the host extracellular matrix and can act as ... -
Analysis and development of the recombinant Semliki Forest virus vector as a cancer gene therapy agent
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). School of Medicine. Discipline of Clinical Microbiology, 2001)Increased understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of cancer has shown that its accumulation is the result of multiple genetic alterations. Cancer is a disease of altered genes, with the most predominantly altered ... -
The molecular characterization of the clumping Factor A (ClfA) from Staphylococcus aureus using monoclonal antibodies
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). School of Medicine. Discipline of Clinical Microbiology, 2000)Clumping factor (ClfA) of Staphylococcus aureus is the major fibrinogen- binding adhesin located on the cell surface of the bacterium. Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) were produced to two recombinant truncated ClfA proteins, ... -
Functional analysis of the VirB protein of Shigella flexneri
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). School of Medicine. Discipline of Clinical Microbiology, 2003)The VirB protein is a key regulator of virulence gene expression in Shigella flexneri, a facultative enteroinvasive pathogen that causes bacillary dysentery. Genetic evidence has shown that VirB is required for the activation ... -
A role for proteases and transcriptional regulation in the expression of ClfB on the surface of staphylococcus aureus
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). School of Medicine. Discipline of Clinical Microbiology, 2002)Staphylococcus aureus is an important human pathogen. This bacterium expresses proteins on its surface capable of binding to many host ligands including fibrinogen, fibronectin, collagen, elastin and von Willebrand factor. ... -
The control of DNA gyrase expression and its role in deletion formation in Salmonella enterica
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). School of Medicine. Discipline of Clinical Microbiology, 2003)Salmonella typhimurium strain CJD671 can undergo the deletion of a 5kb segment of DNA from its large virulence plasmid. This results in a transcriptional fusion between the rlgA gene, encoding a putative site-specific ... -
Development of the recombinant Semliki Forest virus vector as a gene therapy agent for the central nervous system
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). School of Medicine. Discipline of Clinical Microbiology, 2004)Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurological disease of the central nervous system (CNS), and a major cause of disability in young adults. It is characterized by the presence of inflammatory infiltrates containing autoreactive ... -
Plasmodium falciparum aminopeptidases and their role in haemoglobin degradation in malaria-infected erthrocytes
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). School of Medicine. Discipline of Clinical Microbiology, 2001)Malaria remains one of the world's most important infectious diseases. There is no vaccine available, and the spread of drug resistance has narrowed the choice of chemotherapy, especially for the most lethal human malaria ... -
Molecular characterisation of the interactions between staphylococcus aureus and elastin
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). School of Medicine. Discipline of Clinical Microbiology, 2002)Previous studies have shown that a cell-surface 83 kDa elastin-binding protein of Staphylococcus aureus (EbpS) mediates binding to soluble elastin. Antibodies were produced to the N terminus and C terminus of EbpS. Western ... -
Characterisation and Molecular Epidemiology of Mycobacterium chimaera isolates in Ireland
(Trinity College Dublin. School of Medicine. Discipline of Clinical Microbiology, 2019)Mycobacterium chimaera is a slow-growing nontuberculous Mycobacterium spp. that is now recognized as a separate species within the Mycobacterium avium Complex (MAC). In the past, M. chimaera was mainly associated with ... -
Investigation of the pathogenicity of Rubella virus for the central nervous system
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). School of Medicine. Discipline of Clinical Microbiology, 2002)Rubella virus (RV) is the cause of a mild self limiting disease, known as German measles, which predominates during childhood. It is however the devastating teratogenic effects of this virus that are of most concern. Rare ... -
StpA and the regulation of OmpF porin expression in Escherichia coli
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). School of Medicine. Discipline of Clinical Microbiology, 2001)When the proteomic profile of a wild-type strain of Escherichia coli and its stpA hns mutant derivative were compared by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, the levels of expression of several proteins were altered. One ...
