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Updated: Oct 9, 2026

Characterization of Inflammatory Responses During Intranasal Colonization with Streptococcus pneumoniae
Published on: January 17, 2014
mSphere of Influence: Is asymptomatic colonization really silent?
1Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology, School of Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.
Abstract:
Brady Spencer is a bacteriologist studying host-pathogen-microbiota interactions. In this mSphere of Influence article, she reflects on how two studies from Scott Hultgren's laboratory on mucosal imprinting following Escherichia coli bladder infection (V. P. O'Brien, T. J. Hannan, L. Yu, J. Livny, et al., Nat Microbiol 2:16196, 2016, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.196; S. K. Russell, J. K. Harrison, B. S. Olson, H. J. Lee, et al., Nat Microbiol 8:875-888, 2023, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41564-023-01346-6) and work by J. C. Whitney, S. B. Peterson, J. Kim, M. Pazos, et al., eLife 6:e26938, 2017, https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.26938) on T7SSb-mediated interbacterial antagonism shaped her approach to studying group B Streptococcus colonization and its potential long-term consequences at mucosal surfaces.
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