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Bruce A. McClane, PhD








				

		Dr. Bruce McClane	
		

		    	
        
Contact
        
	
					

			bamcc@pitt.edu	
			

		
					

			412-648-9022	
			

			
        		

		Fax: 412-624-2139	
		

		
		
					
420 Bridgeside Point II
450 Technology Drive
		
        
                
        







	

	
Education
Postdoc, NYU School of Medicine
PhD in Microbiology and Cell Biology, Penn State University
	



    




	

		
Academic Affiliation(s)

	
Professor, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
	
	







Research
Our laboratory studies bacterial pathogenesis. Specifically, we focus on enteric diseases caused by Clostridium perfringens type A (including C. perfringens type A food poisoning, which is the second most common bacterial foodborne illness in the USA and several nonfoodborne human GI illnesses, notably antibiotic-associated diarrhea and sporadic diarrhea), and several veterinary enterotoxemias caused by type B-D isolates. Type B and D infections are of particular interest because they involve epsilon toxin, a class B CDC/USDA overlap select toxin.
Lab Personnel
Jihong Li, Research Instructor
Jianming Chen, Research Associate
Menglin Ma, Research Associate
Archana Shrestha, Research Associate
James Theoret, Postdoc
John Courtland Freedman, Postdoc
Areas of Interest
Bacterial toxins, bacterial pathogenesis, regulation of virulence, toxin plasmids



















Publications
	

	
Vidal J. E, Ma M, Saputo J, Garcia J, Uzal F. A, and McClane B. A. Evidence that the Agr-like quorum sensing system regulates the toxin production, cytotoxicity and pathogenicity of Clostridium perfringens type C isolate CN3685. Mol Microbiol. 83: 179-194. |  View Abstract
Ma M, Vidal J, Saputo J, McClane B. A, and Uzal F. The VirS/VirR two-component system regulates the anaerobic cytotoxicity, intestinal pathogenicity, and enterotoxemic lethality of Clostridium perfringens type C isolate CN3685. MBio. 2: e00338-10. |  View Abstract
Li J, Sayeed S, Robertson S, Chen J, and McClane B. A. Sialidases affect the host cell adherence and epsilon toxin-induced cytotoxicity of Clostridium perfringens type D strain CN3718. PLoS Pathog. 7: e1002429. |  View Abstract
Chen J, Rood J. I, and McClane B. A. Epsilon-toxin production by Clostridium perfringens type D strain CN3718 is dependent upon the agr operon but not the VirS/VirR two-component regulatory system. MBio. 2: e00275-11. |  View Abstract
Briggs D. C, Naylor C. E, Smedley J. G, 3rd, Lukoyanova N, Robertson S, Moss D. S, McClane B. A, and Basak A. K. Structure of the food-poisoning Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin reveals similarity to the aerolysin-like pore-forming toxins. J Mol Biol. 413: 138-149. |  View Abstract
Vidal J. E, Ohtani K, Shimizu T, and McClane B. A. Contact with enterocyte-like Caco-2 cells induces rapid upregulation of toxin production by Clostridium perfringens type C isolates. Cell Microbiol. 11: 1306-1328. |  View Abstract
Li J, and McClane B. A. A novel small acid soluble protein variant is important for spore resistance of most Clostridium perfringens food poisoning isolates. PLoS Pathog. 4: e1000056 |  View Abstract