PhD Studentship: Understanding Staphylococcus capitis skin colonisation in atopic dermatitis

University of Birmingham - Department of Microbes, Infection and Microbiomes

Atopic dermatitis is a common chronic inflammatory skin disorder, affecting 15-20% of children and up to 10% of adults. During disease flares, patients experience painful, inflamed skin lesions accompanied by intense itch. In atopic dermatitis, there is a dysbiosis of the microbiome on the skin’s stratum corneum resulting in staphylococci becoming the dominant colonisers. Colonisation of the skin with Staphylococcus aureus is known to be a major driver of inflammation associated with atopic dermatitis, and a cause of disease flares. We have previously characterised the adhesive interactions that occur between S. aureus and corneocytes in the stratum corneum. We discovered that fibronectin binding protein B and clumping factor B, cell wall-anchored proteins displayed on the surface of S. aureus, mediate bacterial adhesion to corneocytes from atopic dermatitis patients with severe disease by binding to corneodesmosin, a protein that coats villus-like projections on the corneocyte surface. We recently found that Staphylococcus capitis can be isolated from the skin of 40% of adult patients with moderate atopic dermatitis, often in place of S. aureus. However, we do not know anything about how S. capitis influences skin biology, or the molecular mechanisms used by S. capitis to establish colonisation of the stratum corneum. This project therefore aims to exploit our new finding and to functionally characterise S. capitis factors promoting colonisation of skin and to obtain a better understanding of the role of this bacterium in the pathology of atopic dermatitis.

The project will be advertised by Professor Joan Geoghegan (j.geoghegan@bham.ac.uk).

Funding notes:
This project is part of the Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership (MIBTP) and in partnership with L'Oreal Research and Innovation, Paris.