Co-hosted by Georgia Tech's Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. 

Katharina Ribbeck
Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Professor
Department of Biological Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Register HERE to participate via Zoom

ABSTRACT
Mucus, a biological gel lining all wet epithelia including the mouth, lungs, and digestive tracts, is evolved to protect against pathogenic invasion. However, studies on microbial pathogenesis in these systems often neglect the natural, three-dimensional mucus gels, focusing instead on mucus-free environments that lack essential geometric constraints and microbial interactions. To address this gap, our laboratory has developed model test systems utilizing purified mucin polymers—the primary gel-forming constituents of the mucus barrier—and their associated glycans. Through these models, we investigate the influence of the mucus barrier on microbial virulence and the mechanisms microbes use to breach this protection. Our findings reveal that mucin polymers, particularly their glycans, play a critical role in regulating microbial behaviors such as surface attachment, toxin secretion, quorum sensing, and biofilm formation. Furthermore, we are beginning to identify microbial sensors of mucins and intracellular pathways responsive to mucin regulation. These discoveries position mucin glycans as key regulators of microbial virulence, opening new therapeutic avenues leveraging these host-derived molecules.

RESEARCH
The Laboratory for Biological Hydrogels’ focus is on basic mechanisms by which mucus barriers exclude, or allow passage of different molecules and pathogens, and the mechanisms pathogens have evolved to penetrate mucus barriers. It hopes to provide the foundation for a theoretical framework that captures general principles governing selectivity in mucus, and likely other biological hydrogels such as the extracellular matrix, and bacterial biofilms. The Lab’s work may also be the basis for the reconstitution of synthetic gels that mimic the basic selective properties of biological gels.

BIO
Prof. Ribbeck obtained her Bachelor’s degree and her Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. She continued her postdoctoral research at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany, and the Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School. Katharina Ribbeck established her independent research group as a Bauer Fellow at the FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University in 2007, and joined the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT as an Assistant Professor in 2010.