Linda J KENNEY
Alumni, Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore
Congratulations to Wee Juin Shin for being selected to present his work at the Amgen Scholars Asia Symposium!
Our Amgen scholar, Wee Juin Shin, has been selected to present his work on ‘the Influence of substrate curvature on theca cell nematic flow’, at the Amgen Scholar Asia Symposium in Kyoto!
Geetika Chouhan
Research Fellow, Dye Group
Seeking Research Assistant for project with MBI Fellow Dr. Tee Yee Han at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS
The Mechanobiology Institute, NUS seeks to recruit a Research Assistant to work with MBI Fellow Dr. Tee Yee Han.
Seeking Research Fellow in the group of Prof. Alexander Bershadsky at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS
The Mechanobiology Institute, NUS seeks to recruit a Research Fellow in the group of Prof. Alexander Bershadsky at the MBI, NUS.
Linda J Kenney
Alumni
Research Areas
Signal transduction in bacteria; Bacterial Pathogenesis; Mechanotransduction and osmotic signaling in E. coli; Mechanisms of anti-silencing of virulence genes in Salmonella
Research Interests
Our laboratory is interested in signal transduction and the regulation of gene expression in prokaryotes. In particular, we are studying the two-component regulatory system EnvZ/OmpR that regulates the expression of outer membrane proteins as well as many other genes. Our present work focuses on how OmpR activates genes required for systemic infection (located on Salmonella pathogenicity island 2) in Salmonella enterica.
The Kenney Lab’s research was recently featured in an article exploring the bacterial molecular switch between virulence or dormancy, Salmonella Lifestyle Choices. Members of her lab have discovered that the bacterial protein SsrB is the molecular switch for determining whether Salmonella infections become acute and virulent, or remain in a dormant carrier state.
The study is published in eLife (Desai et al., The horizontally-acquired response regulator SsrB drives a Salmonella lifestyle switch by relieving biofilm silencing, February 2, 2016, eLife 2016; 5: e10747, doi: 10.7554/eLife.10747). Read full article.
Biography
Dr Kenney is a Professor of Microbiology at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Her laboratory studies two-component systems in bacteria that control gene expression at a single cell and nanometer level.
Professor Linda J Kenney and Professor Michael Sheetz interviewed by the Washington Post at the April 2017 March for Science.
Education
PhD University of Pennsylvania
Recent Publications
- Fernandez M, Yamanaka Y, Zangoui P, White MA, and Kenney LJ. The sulfur assimilation pathway mitigates redox stress from acidic pH in Salmonella Typhi H58. mBio 2025;:e0046725. [PMID: 40422406]
- Shetty D, and Kenney LJ. A pH-sensitive switch activates virulence in Salmonella. Elife 2023; 12. [PMID: 37706506]
- Oh D, Liu X, Sheetz MP, and Kenney LJ. Small, Dynamic Clusters of Tir-Intimin Seed Actin Polymerization. Small 2023;:e2302580. [PMID: 37649226]
- Mon KKZ, Si Z, Chan-Park MB, and Kenney LJ. Polyimidazolium Protects against an Invasive Clinical Isolate of Salmonella Typhimurium. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2022;:e0059722. [PMID: 36094258]
- Jacob H, Geng H, Shetty D, Halow N, Kenney LJ, and Nakano MM. Distinct Interaction Mechanism of RNAP and ResD and Distal Subsites for Transcription Activation of Nitrite Reductase in Bacillus subtilisψ. J Bacteriol 2021;:JB0043221. [PMID: 34898263]
- Singh MK, Zangoui P, Yamanaka Y, and Kenney LJ. Genetic code expansion enables visualization of Salmonella type three secretion system components and secreted effectors. Elife 2021; 10. [PMID: 34061032]
- Kenney LJ, and Anand GS. EnvZ/OmpR Two-Component Signaling: An Archetype System That Can Function Noncanonically. EcoSal Plus 2020; 9(1). [PMID: 32003321]
- Desai SK, and Kenney LJ. Switching Lifestyles Is an in vivo Adaptive Strategy of Bacterial Pathogens. Front Cell Infect Microbiol 2019; 9:421. [PMID: 31921700]
- Desai SK, Padmanabhan A, Harshe S, Zaidel-Bar R, and Kenney LJ. Salmonella biofilms program innate immunity for persistence in Caenorhabditis elegans. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2019;. [PMID: 31160462]
- Ottemann KM, and Kenney LJ. Editorial overview: Host-pathogen interactions: bacteria. Curr. Opin. Microbiol. 2019; 47:iii-v. [PMID: 31138403]
Lab Members
What is the epithelial to mesenchymal transition?
What is the epithelial to mesenchymal transition? Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is the process whereby epithelial cells are transformed into mesenchymal cells. Epithelial cells form the epithelium tissue which covers the internal and [...]
What is the mesenchymal to epithelial transition?
What is the mesenchymal-epithelial transition? During development, the transitioning of epithelial cells to a mesenchymal lineage is not an irreversible process. Instead, a number of developmental programs are accompanied by a reversal of EMT, [...]
What is hematopoiesis?
What is hematopoiesis? The hematopoietic system, which comprises all the cellular components of the blood, is one of the earliest organ systems to evolve during embryo development. Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), which are rare [...]
What is the cellular origin of hematopoietic stem cells?
What is the cellular origin of hematopoietic stem cells? Based on findings from a large number of anatomical, biochemical, and genetic studies carried out over the years, three major theories have been put forth [...]
How are cell-cell adhesions regulated?
How are cell-cell adhesions regulated? Introduction to the regulation of cell-cell adhesion The assembly and disassembly of cell-cell junctions, such as adherens junctions (AJ), are regulated by a vast array of factors functioning in [...]
What are cell-cell adhesions?
What are cell-cell adhesions? Cell-cell signaling refers to inter-cellular communication through the transduction of chemical, mechanical or electrical signals, facilitated by the formation of specialized cell-cell adhesion junctions. There are three main types of [...]
How is hematopoiesis regulated by mechanics?
How is hematopoiesis regulated by mechanics? Once blood circulation is established during the earliest stages of hematopoiesis, the pulsatile nature of blood flow within the aorta generates a range of biomechanical forces, such as [...]
How are adherens junctions assembled?
How are adherens junctions assembled? Introduction to the Assembly of Adherens Junctions In situations where migrating cells first encounter each other to form junctions, changes in cellular morphology have been observed and correlated with [...]
How are tight junctions assembled?
How are tight junctions assembled? The epithelial tissue is held intact by the formation of tight junctions between cells. The basic functional units that form adhesive contacts across cells are the tight junction strands, [...]
What are tight junctions?
What are tight junctions? Tight junctions, also known as Zonula Occludens, are cell-cell adhesion complexes that play a role in the organization of epithelial tissue. By forming a meshwork of membrane contacts around the [...]
What are anchoring junctions?
What are anchoring junctions? Cells adhere to the ECM, or to other cells, via complexes that can collectively be called anchoring junctions (reviewed in [1][2]). These multiprotein complexes are found in all cell types [...]
How do post-translational modifications of cell-cell adhesions impact their stability?
How do post-translational modifications of cell-cell adhesions impact their stability? Post-translational modification of adhesion complex components is one of the most complicated aspects in the regulation of cell-cell adhesions. It involves an array of [...]
