Jimmy Ballard, Ph.D., PROFESSOR AND CHAIRMAN, PI/DIRECTOR, OKLAHOMA CENTER FOR MICROBIAL PATHOGENESIS AND IMMUNITY, COBRE
RESEARCH INTERESTS: The Ballard lab studies fundamental aspects for Clostridioides difficile physiology and mechanisms of pathogenesis. C. difficile is a leading cause of hospital-acquired infections and routinely infects patients undergoing antibiotic treatments.
Though C. difficile is a strict anaerobe, the disease is initiated through environmental exposure to inert spores that germinate once within the gastrointestinal tract.
After colonization, C. difficile produces bacterial toxins that further promote interactions with the colonic epithelium, trigger inflammation, and damage cells. As part of a longstanding project in our lab, we are studying the effects of C. difficile TcdB, a potent cytotoxin.
In a more recent project, we’ve studied a peptide-based regulatory system that appears to influence sporulation, motility, and toxin expression in C. difficile.