Barbara May, Ph.D.

College of St. Benedict/St. John's University

Department of Biology

research

I have a wide variety of interests that encompass both immunology and microbiology.  The connection between them is the usage of molecular research techniques.

current research:

• microbes in the bakery: we have been collaberating with Steve Nelson at the Collegeville Artisan Bakery in St. Joseph, MN to investigate how microbes affect the change in pH of bread (which can affect its taste).  We are also looking to identify the microbes that are present in his bread throughout the baking process.  Steve and several students just recently presented this information at a Bread Camp in San Fransisco!

• how do tuberculosis strains differ if they are in the lungs or central nervous system?: tuberculosis (tb) is an often fatal lung disease and even though it is curable infectious disease, it is still one of the leading causes of death (over 2 million people die annually). The bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis causes the disease tb and the bacteria can sometimes spread to other parts of the body where the infection can become even more severe, like the central nervous system.  We want to figure out if certain strains of this bacteria like to travel out of the lungs.  We are characterizing several isolates by identification of several SNPs on the M. tuberculosis genome. 

other interests in development:

• genomic identification of microbes in the arboretum: There are future plans to use molecular techniques (like sequencing) to identify the microbes that are present in different areas of the arboretum here at St. John's University.  Upon identification we can do some comparative experiments to see how the microbial populations differ here compared to other environments (like farmed land, colder environments, etc..)

• how do natural products affect our immune system and the process of infectious disease?: there are many natural products out there (like Airborne, propolis, Echinasia) that claim to have benefits on the immune system.  We would like to use molecular techniques to better explore some of these products and what they really do to the immune system.  Some of these products are being currently studied and their affect on the immune system is better understood, but others' affects on the immune system still needs to be elucidated.