Congrats to Dr. Patrick Curtis on your new grant!!!

This new grant is to study the Caulobacter crescentus pilus. Pili are cell structures bacteria use to attach to surfaces, as well as perform other functions. The C. crescentus pilus is a rare sub-type that has hardly been studied, and there are a couple unusual facets to it that we and others have uncovered. The grant will focus on two of these. First is the regulation of the pilA gene, which encodes the subunit that makes up the pilus filament. Our data suggests that this gene may use a completely novel regulatory mechanism, and we aim to understand that mechanism. The second part explores how the pilus becomes localized to the cell pole, something we know little about, and may be tied to the localization of developmental signaling proteins.