"Increased understanding of our biological complexity will help us understand ourselves better and inform new strategies to treat disease."
— Dr. Nina Salama
/content/dam/www/people-profile-photos/s/nina-salama/nina-salama-d.jpg
Salama
Nina Salama, PhD
- Senior Vice President, Education, Fred Hutch
- Professor, Human Biology Division, Fred Hutch
- Professor, Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutch
- Dr. Penny E. Petersen Memorial Chair for Lymphoma Research, Fred Hutch
- Affiliate Professor, Basic Sciences Division, Fred Hutch
- Member, Pathogen-Associated Malignancies Integrated Research Center (PAM IRC), Fred Hutch
- Member, Translational Data Science Integrated Research Center (TDS IRC), Fred Hutch
- Director, Cancer Research and Training Education Coordination Program, Fred Hutch/University of Washington/Seattle Children’s Cancer Consortium
Background
Dr. Nina Salama studies Helicobacter pylori, a stomach bacterium that infects half the world’s population and is associated with ulcers and gastric cancer — the third leading cancer killer worldwide. Her team found that H. pylori’s unique corkscrew shape allows the bug to colonize the stomach by burrowing into the mucus lining where it is protected from the acidic environment. They found a set of key proteins responsible for the bacterium’s twisty form. H. pylori that lack these proteins cannot set up shop in the stomach, making these proteins possible new drug targets to prevent infection. Dr. Salama is trying to understand why only some people infected with H. pylori develop stomach cancer, and how genetic variations in the bacterium affect human disease and transmission. She also works to understand how a person’s immune response to the bug influences the course of their infection.
Education
PhD, Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, 1995
BS, Honors Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1989
Research Interests
The mechanisms by which Helicobacter pylori can establish and maintain a chronic infection in the unusual environment of the human stomach and the molecular cross talk between the host and the bacteria during the decades long infection
H. pylori genomic diversity
Genetic Analysis of H. pylori virulence factors
Mechanistic studies of H. pylori virulence; Cell wall modification and cell shape; DNA metabolism