John T. Belisle
Professor, Director of the Rocky Mountain Regional Center of Excellence

Phone: 491-5384
Fax: 491-8707
Email: John.Belisle@Colostate.Edu
Office: C220 Microbiology Building, 100 Infectious Disease Annex
Lab: C204/C205 Microbiology Building

 

Degrees

• B.S., Ph.D., Colorado State University

Research Interests

Bacterial Genetics and Physiology

• There are two primary foci of our laboratory group: The provision of reagents and collaborations with other researchers through the Tubculosis Research Materials and Vaccine Testing Contract (NO1-AI-75320; http://www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/microbiology/tb/top.htm) The study of mycobacterial physiology and genetics.
• The recent completion of the genome sequences of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium avium provides a unique opportunity to study the proteomes of these organisms using high throughput methodologies, such as 2-D PAGE and LC-MS-MS. We are currently using such approaches to address several aspects of the M. tuberculosis proteome: (1) study the glycoproteins of M. tuberculosis and define the implications of post-translational modifications on immunogenicity and bacterial physiology; (2) elucidate the molecular mechanism of growth regulation and glycolipid biosynthesis in Mycobacterium spp.; and (3) define and characterize proteins of M. tuberculosis that are primary targets of the host immune response and involved in pathogenesis. The overall goal of this work is to provide a better understanding of the physiology of Mycobacterium spp., and to apply this knowledge to the development of improved diagnostics, vaccines and anti-mycobacterial drugs.

Selected Publications

Pub Med for Belisle JT.

• Singh KK, Dong Y, Hinds L, Keen MA, Belisle JT, Zolla-Pazner S, Achkar JM, Nadas AJ, Arora VK, Laal S. Combined use of serum and urinary antibody for diagnosis of tuberculosis.J Infect Dis. 2003 Aug 1;188(3):371-7.
• Gonzalez-Juarrero M, Turner J, Basaraba RJ, Belisle JT, Orme IM. Florid pulmonary inflammatory responses in mice vaccinated with Antigen-85 pulsed dendritic cells and challenged by aerosol with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Cell Immunol. 2002 Nov;220(1):13-9.
• Braunstein M, Espinosa BJ, Chan J, Belisle JT, R Jacobs W. SecA2 functions in the secretion of superoxide dismutase A and in the virulence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Mol Microbiol. 2003 Apr;48(2):453-64.
• Heinzel AS, Grotzke JE, Lines RA, Lewinsohn DA, McNabb AL, Streblow DN, Braud VM, Grieser HJ, Belisle JT, Lewinsohn DM. HLA-E-dependent presentation of Mtb-derived antigen to human CD8+ T cells. J Exp Med. 2002 Dec 2;196(11):1473-81.
• Saleh, MT, M. Fillon, PJ Brennan, and J. T. Belisle. Identification of putative exported/secreted proteins in prokaryotic proteomes. Gene 2001, 269; 195-204.
• Noss, EH, RK Pai, TJ Sellati, JD Radolf, JT Belisle, DT Golenbock, WH Boom, and CV Harding. Toll-Like Receptor 2-Dependent Inhibition of Macrophage Class II MHC Expression and Antigen Processing by 19-kDa Lipoprotein of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. J Immunol 2001, 167; 910-918.
• Miriam Braunstein and John T. Belisle. Genetics of Protein Secretion. 2000, p. 203-220. In G.F. Hatfull, and W.R. Jacobs, Jr. (eds), Molecular Genetics of the Mycobacteria. ASM Press, Washington, D.C.
• Ronning, D.R., T. Klabunde, G.S. Besra, V.D. Vissa, J.T. Belisle, and J.C. Sacchettini. 2000. Crystal structure of the secreted form of antigen 85C reveals potential targets for mycobacterial drugs and vaccines. Nature Struct. Biol. 7:141-146.
• Eckstein, T.M., F.S. Silbaq, and J.T. Belisle. 1998. Identification and Recombinant Expression of a Mycobacterium avium rhamnosyltransferase gene (rtfA) involved in glycopeptidolipid biosynthesis. J. Bacteriol. 180:5567-5573.
• Belisle, J.T., V.D. Vissa, T. Sievert, K. Takayama, P.J. Brennan, and G.S. Besra. 1997. Role of the major antigen of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in cell wall biogenesis. Science 276:1420-1422.
• Sonnenberg, M.G., and J.T. Belisle. 1997. Definition of Mycobacterium tuberculosis culture filtrate proteins by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis mapping, N-terminal amino acid sequencing and electrospray mass spectrometry. Infect. Immun. 65:4515-4525.