Biology of Spirochetes Unit (BOSU)
Established in 2024
Philip P. Adams, Ph.D.
Chief, Biology of Spirochetes Unit
Stadtman Tenure-Track Investigator
NIH Distinguished Scholar
Contact: philip.adams@nih.gov
Major Areas of Research
- Biology of spirochetes
- Bacterial regulatory RNAs and proteins
- Bacterial transcriptomics
- Determinants of Borrelia burgdorferi tick and mammalian infection
- Molecular Genetics of Treponema pallidum
Program Description
Numerous human pathogens are spirochetes, including Borrelia burgdorferi, Leptospira interrogans, and Treponema pallidum, the causative agents of Lyme disease, leptospirosis, and syphilis, respectively. Spirochetes are highly motile bacteria characterized by their long, slender, spiral morphology and presence of periplasmic flagella.
Micrograph of the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi stained with Mitotracker Green, photographed by T. Updegrove.
The long-term objective of our research is to understand how bacterial pathogens adapt to their hosts and cause disease. The Biology of Spirochetes Unit aims to characterize the fundamental biological principles of pathogenic spirochetes and the molecular mechanisms that regulate their infectivity.
Biography
Education
Ph.D., 2017, Biomedical Sciences, University of Central Florida, FL
B.S., 2012, Biology, Summa Cum Laude, West Virginia Wesleyan College, WV
Dr. Philip Adams earned his undergraduate degree in biology at West Virginia Wesleyan College in 2012, where he first studied B. burgdorferi cell biology. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences from the University of Central Florida, College of Medicine, Division of Immunity and Pathogenesis in 2017. His dissertation work identified and characterized murine infection-relevant RNAs in Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease.
In 2017, Dr. Adams joined NIH as a postdoctoral fellow at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. He was accepted into the National Institute of General Medical Sciences Postdoctoral Research Associate Training program in 2019. His postdoctoral work characterized novel regulatory RNAs and RNA-binding proteins in the model bacterium, Escherichia coli.
In 2020, Dr. Adams received an Independent Research Scholar Award from NIH, allowing him to form the Group on Gene Regulation in Bacterial Pathogens, an autonomous NIH research group focused on RNA-mediated gene regulation in B. burgdorferi. In 2024, Dr. Adams arrived at the Laboratory of Bacteriology within NIAID to start the Biology of Spirochetes Unit (BOSU).
Dr. Adams is currently a Stadtman Tenure-Track Investigator, NIH Distinguished Scholar, and Chief of the NIAID Biology of Spirochetes Unit.
Selected Publications
Zamba-Campero M and Soliman D, Yu H, Lasseter AG, Chang YY, Silberman JL, Liu J, Aravind L, Jewett MW, Storz G, Adams PP. Broadly conserved FlgV controls flagellar assembly and Borrelia burgdorferi dissemination in mice. Nat Commun. 2024 Nov 29;15(1):10417.
Petroni E and Esnault C, Tetreault D, Dale RK, Storz G, Adams PP. Extensive diversity in RNA termination and regulation revealed by transcriptome mapping for the Lyme pathogen Borrelia burgdorferi. Nat Commun. 2023 Jul 4;14(1):3931.
Adams PP, Baniulyte G, Esnault C, Chegireddy K, Singh N, Monge M, Dale RK, Storz G, Wade JT. Regulatory roles of Escherichia coli 5' UTR and ORF-internal RNAs detected by 3' end mapping. Elife. 2021 Jan 18;10:e62438.
Adams PP, Storz G. Prevalence of small base-pairing RNAs derived from diverse genomic loci. Biochim Biophys Acta Gene Regul Mech. 2020 Jul;1863(7):194524.
Melamed S and Adams PP, Zhang A, Zhang H, Storz G. RNA-RNA Interactomes of ProQ and Hfq Reveal Overlapping and Competing Roles. Mol Cell. 2020 Jan 16;77(2):411-425.e7.
Adams PP, Flores Avile C, Popitsch N, Bilusic I, Schroeder R, Lybecker M, Jewett MW. In vivo expression technology and 5' end mapping of the Borrelia burgdorferi transcriptome identify novel RNAs expressed during mammalian infection. Nucleic Acids Res. 2017 Jan 25;45(2):775-792.
Research Network
Research Group
The Adams Research Group uses molecular and cellular techniques to manipulate spirochetes, sequence bacterial transcriptomes, characterize cellular processes, map regulatory networks, and study spirochetes during infection.
