{"id":40802289948,"date":"2025-08-12T11:45:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T15:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/?p=40802289948"},"modified":"2025-08-13T23:24:51","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T03:24:51","slug":"prof-ananada-co-authors-study-of-e-coli-persister-cells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/prof-ananada-co-authors-study-of-e-coli-persister-cells\/","title":{"rendered":"Prof. Ananda Co-Authors Study of E. Coli Persister Cells"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aina Ananda, Ph.D., lecturer in the Department of Biology, collaborated with faculty from the University of Houston to publish \u201cUnraveling CRP\/cAMP-mediated Metabolic Regulation in Escherichia coli Persister Cells<\/a>\u201d (eLife, 2025). The research aims to improve methods of fighting infections by demonstrating that some bacteria survive antibiotics not by shutting down, but by increasing their energy production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authors focused their study on \u201cpersister\u201d cells, which are rare bacterial cells that survive antibiotics without genetic resistance. While these cells were previously believed to be mostly dormant, this new research suggests a high level of activity at the metabolic level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using E.\u202fcoli as a model, the researchers found that persister cells rely on a regulatory system called Crp\/cAMP. This system shifts the cells\u2019 metabolism to focus on producing energy through oxidative phosphorylation\u2014a process that efficiently generates ATP, the cell\u2019s energy source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When researchers disrupted this system, the bacteria became more vulnerable to antibiotics. This suggests that targeting energy metabolism could help eliminate persister cells, which may lead to making antibiotics more effective against chronic infections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the authors, the study provides much-needed clarification regarding the role of energy metabolism in antibiotic tolerance and highlights the importance of using a multipronged approach at the genomic level to obtain a broader picture of the metabolic state of persister cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ananda conducted this research alongside Han G. Ngo,\u00a0Sayed Golam Mohiuddin,\u00a0and Mehmet Orman, faculty in the Department of Chemical Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Houston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full article and learn more about the findings.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aina Ananda, Ph.D., lecturer in the Department of Biology, collaborated with faculty from the University of Houston to publish \u201cUnraveling CRP\/cAMP-mediated Metabolic Regulation in Escherichia coli Persister Cells\u201d (eLife, 2025). The research aims to improve methods of fighting infections by demonstrating that some bacteria survive antibiotics not by shutting down, but by increasing their energy production. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":40802289950,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444,423,170],"tags":[3777],"person":[5850],"audience":[11,8],"school":[119,68],"program":[],"class_list":["post-40802289948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-monmouth-now","category-faculty-perspectives","category-research","tag-school-of-science","person-aina-ananda","audience-current-student","audience-faculty","school-biology","school-school-of-science"],"squareimage":{"id":40802289954,"rendered":"\"Logo","original":{"url":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/08\/icon-600x600@1.52e87ee6.png","width":600,"height":600}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802289948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40802289948"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802289948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40802290003,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802289948\/revisions\/40802290003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40802289950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40802289948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40802289948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40802289948"},{"taxonomy":"person","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person?post=40802289948"},{"taxonomy":"audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/audience?post=40802289948"},{"taxonomy":"school","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/school?post=40802289948"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=40802289948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}