Philip P. Adams, Ph.D.

Across bacterial pathogens, systematic control of gene expression and basic biological functions are critical for bacteria to inhabit different environmental niches and successfully infect hosts. Spirochetes, a bacterial family of distinctive classification, are defined by their long, thin spiral shape and unique endoflagella - flagellar anchored at each cell pole that extend through the periplasmic space, rather than the extracellular environment. Various human pathogens are spirochetes. The Lyme spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, exists in an enzootic cycle that requires acquisition and transmission of B. burgdorferi between Ixodes scapularis ticks and small mammals and birds. Human infection, and the pathogenesis of Lyme disease, result from the bite of an infected tick. Treponema pallidum, the causative agent of syphilis, is sexually transmitted and is unable to survive outside of a human host. Another spirochete Leptospira interrogansi, can exist in the environment and infects humans through animal urine and contaminated water or soil.

The Adams Lab investigates the cell biology and gene regulatory networks in pathogenic spirochetes. Using genetics, molecular biology, RNA biology, biochemistry and infection models we characterize genes and regulatory responses during bacterial stress and host adaptation. Through our work we aim to better understand the biology of spirochetes and the molecular mechanisms of spirochete infectivity.

Dr. Philip Adams is a Stadtman Tenure-Track Investigator and Chief of the NIAID Biology of Spirochetes Unit. He received his B.S. in Biology from West Virginia Wesleyan College and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine. His dissertation work, with Dr. Mollie W. Jewett identified genes expressed and/or required for B. burgdorferi tick and mouse infectivity. During a post-doctoral fellowship in the lab of Dr. Gisela Storz at the NICHD he characterized novel regulatory RNAs and RNA-binding proteins in the model bacterium, Escherichia coli. Dr. Adams' current group at NIAID is studying cell biology and mechanisms of gene regulation in B. burgdorferi, T. pallidum, and L. interrogans.