Disputas – master i biologi Maria Charlene Ronessen Pain

The doctoral thesis! Avhandlingen er tilgjengelig her!   På grunn av koronautbruddet er auditoriet stengt for publikum. Opptaket av disputasen vil være tilgjengelig i en uke. The auditorium will be closed to the public because of the corona outbreak. A recording of the disputation will be available for one week.

Prøveforelesning starter kl. 1100
Prøveforelesningen har følgende tittel: “The risk of coagulase negative Staphylococci becoming pathogens”.
Prøveforelesningen streames her! 
The trail lecture will be streamed here!

Disputas starter kl. 1300
Disputasen vil bli streamet her! 
The defense will be streamed here!

Populærvitenskapelig sammendrag av avhandlingen:
Staphylococcus haemolyticus is a bacterium found on the skin of most healthy individuals, but is also increasingly responsible for hospital-acquired infections.

Diagnosing a S. haemolyticus infection is difficult as it is often unknown whether the identified bacterium is the source of infection or if it is a contamination from the skin.
Additionally, S. haemolyticus infections can be very challenging to treat due to the development of multidrug resistance in this bacterium. The work in this PhD thesis aimed at achieving a better understanding of S. haemolyticus in order to improve diagnosis by identifying reliable markers of S. haemolyticus infections, and to find new targets, such as surface proteins, that could be used for developing new therapies.
We compared the genomes of 170 S. haemolyticus isolates collected from both healthy and sick individuals, and we found several genes that were associated with the infection-related S. haemolyticus isolates only. In future diagnostic’s, these genes could thereby aid in faster diagnosis and thus correct treatment.

In the search for new targets for future treatment or prevention of S. haemolyticus infection, we examined surface proteins expressed by bacteria that had been in contact with human skin cells. We found several interesting surface proteins, which in other bacteria have been shown to contribute to disease.
These proteins are good candidates for the development of new therapy. During our study we also identified a new species, closely related to S. haemolyticus which we named Staphylococcus borealis.
In conclusion, we have uncovered several genes, which can distinguish between S. haemolyticus isolates causing disease from their benign counterparts, and several proteins which may be possible future targets for therapy.

Veiledere 
Hovedveileder  Førsteamanuensis Pauline  Cavanagh, Institutt for klinisk medisin, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet.
Biveiledere Professor Claus Klingenberg, Professor Trond Flægstad, Førsteamanuensis Elizabeth Aarag Fredheim og PhD Erik Hjerde. 

Bedømmelseskomité
Professor Matthew Holden, University of St Andrews, Scotland - 1. opponent Professor Hanne Ingmer, University of Copenhagen, Denmark – 2.opponent PhD Nicole Podnecky, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet – leder av komité.

Disputasleder
Anne Høye, Institutt for klinisk medisin, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet.