URIs_MOMENTUM_Research_and_Innovation_Magazine_Spring_2024_M

Our bodies are covered in bacteria. However, only some of these bacteria cause disease and The University of Rhode Island’s (URI) Kathryn Ramsey is interested in understanding what makes these particular cells work the way they do. By investigating differences among ribosomes, we may be opening the door to drugs that target specific pathogenic bacteria or even specific classes of ribosomes in a particular pathogen. As an assistant professor of cell and molecular biology, Ramsey studies why pathogenic bacteria cause disease. To do so, she’s looking at the ribosome, the part of the cell that makes proteins. Bacteria are complex. To cause disease, bacteria need to have the genes that make them pathogenic and need to turn those genes on and off at the right time. “They have to respond to the environment around them,” Ramsey says. “That means that these tiny, tiny cells have to know what’s happening on the outside and be able to adjust their lifestyle accordingly.” One of the ways cells can adapt is the first step of gene expression–the process of turning DNA into RNA. However, what interests Ramsey is the second step, where RNA gets turned into protein. All cells feature a multitude of “machines” that make proteins, called the ribosome. Despite its singular name, ribosomes can look and behave differently. Made up of three types of RNA and about 50 proteins, ribosomes have a multitude of ways they can be different, or heterogeneous. “We know they can be different, and we know some things about how they can become different, but we don’t know what that means for how a ribosome makes proteins,” Ramsey says. “That’s a big question that has really been difficult to answer.” WHY PATHOGENIC BACTERIA CAUSE DISEASE written by ALLISON FARRELLY ’16

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