Luanne Hall-Stoodley, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Center for Genomic Sciences
Allegheny-Singer Research Institute
Pittsburgh, PA
Tel:  (412) 359-5016
Fax: (412) 359-6995
Email:

Education

• St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota. B.A. Philosophy and History, 1981
• Montana State University (MSU), Bozeman, Montana. Ph.D. Microbiology and Immunology 1990-1995
• Exeter University, Exeter, United Kingdom. Post-doctoral Fellow. Microbiology 1997-1999
• Center for Biofilm Engineering, MSU, Bozeman, MT. Post-doctoral researcher Assistant Research Professor, 1999-2003

Awards

• Wellcome Trust Sir Henry Wellcome Award for Innovative and Speculative Research (Showcase Award)
• Lackman Award for Outstanding Graduate Student in Microbiology, Microbiology Department ($1000.00)
• NSF Undergraduate Research Award in Biochemistry, Montana State University, Bozeman

Research interests:

My research interests are in biofilms and host pathogen interactions.  In particular, I am interested in:

w   Biofilm development by pathogenic bacteria (non-tuberculous mycobacteria, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

w  Mechanisms of bacterial attachment/adhesion

w  Clinically relevant biofilms

w  Interactions of pathogens with the host and innate immunity

w  Bacterial pathogen persistence

Biofilms

Biofilms are matrix-enclosed microbial populations adherent to biological or non-biological surfaces, which represent an important but incompletely understood mode of growth for bacteria.  Most bacteria grow in biofilms rather than as single planktonic (free swimming) cells.  Biofilms are dynamic, structurally complex biological systems.  Biofilm development represents a protected mode of growth that allows cells to survive in hostile environments and disperse to colonize new niches.  These survival and propagative mechanisms have fundamental implications in the context of both environmental microbiology, microbial ecology and in infectious disease (Hall-Stoodley, Costerton and Stoodley. 2004. Nat. Reviews Microbiol).

Biofilm formation represents a facile microbial survival strategy where microorganisms, including pathogens, exist in a dynamic equilibrium where cell clusters form, mature and detach to disseminate to new surfaces.  Biofilm development provides a degree of homeostasis and stability in a changing environment.  However, local microenvironments within biofilms can be strikingly heterogeneous and organisms compete for space under unreliable conditions, such as nutrient limitation, fluid flow, desiccation, toxic chemical gradients and pH and temperature fluxes.

Pathogenic Biofilms

Some pathogens are only known to exist in the human host.  S. pneumoniae is an important pathogen which causes localized respiratory infections as well as life-threatening systemic infections.  Pneumococcus is an important pathogen in otitis media (OM) in children.  OM with effusion (OME) has been hypothesized to be a biofilm infection because of its chronic clinical course and its recalcitrance to antibiotic treatment.  Recently, it has been shown that several pathogens associated with OME (including pneumococcus) are present in biofilms on the mucosal epithelium of the middle ear (Hall-Stoodley et al. 2006. JAMA). These biofilms were characterized as clusters of pathogenic bacteria identified in situ by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) and immunostaining.  I am interested in investigating pneumococcal biofilms and how biofilm development may contribute to chronic disease such as OME. 

Some pathogens exist in the environment outside animal hosts as autochthonous (indigenous) inhabitants of aqueous systems, including freshwater, estuarine and marine environments and municipal water distribution systems.  The transmission of these pathogens occurs from the environment, although biofilm formation is rarely considered as a mechanism of acquisition (Hall-Stoodley and Stoodley.  2005. Trends in Microbiol).  Several mechanisms make pathogens in biofilms more likely to cause disease than planktonic organisms.  First, an obvious mechanism by which pathogens growing in biofilms cause disease is through the dispersal of large numbers of cells that subsequently initiates an infection.   Time-lapse microscopy in our laboratories and others suggests biofilm organisms are indeed attached, but not permanently attached or fixed.  Dispersal is an integral part of the dynamic nature of biofilms.  Second, pathogens within biofilms are likely to be phenotypically heterogeneous, such that a virulent phenotype might survive within the biofilm.  Third, high cell densities observed within biofilms might regulate quorum sensing (QS) networks that also control virulence mechanisms.  

Biofilm development by mycobacteria is well documented and relevant to their ability to persist in these oligotrophic environments.  More research needs to be done on pathogenic mycobacterial biofilms to investigate the multiple pathways that exist for these organisms to colonize surfaces and cause persistent infections (Hall-Stoodley and Lappin-Scott. 1998. FEMS Microbiol. Letters; Hall-Stoodley et al. 1999. J. Appl. Microbiol).  

Professional Membership and Committees:

American Society of Microbiology, Panel reviewer NSF and FDA, IRB committee

Teaching:

Immunology, Medical and Environmental Microbiology, Pathology, Histology

Publications:

Hall-Stoodley, L. and H.M. Lappin-Scott. 1998. Biofilm formation by the rapidly growing non-tuberculous mycobacteria species Mycobacteria fortuitum. FEMS Microbiological Letters, 168:79-84.

Hall-Stoodley, L., J. Raynor, P. Stoodley and H.M. Lappin-Scott. 1999. Establishment of experimental biofilms using the modified Robbins Device and flow cells. In: Methods in Biotechnology, Vol. 12: Environmental Monitoring of Bacteria, Edwards, C. (Ed.). Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ.

Hall-Stoodley, L., C.W. Keevil and H.M. Lappin-Scott. 1999. Mycobacterium fortuitum and Mycobacterium chelonae form biofilms under high and low nutrient conditions. J. Appl. Microbiol. Vol. 85: 60S-69S.

Stoodley, P., Hall-Stoodley, L. and Lappin-Scott, H.M. 2000. Detachment, surface migration and other dynamic behavior in bacterial biofilms revealed by digital time-lapse imaging. Methods in Enzymology: Microbial Growth in Biofilms. Ed. R.J. Doyle. 337:306-319.

Stoodley, P., Hall-Stoodley, L., Boyle, J.D., Jørgensen, F. and Lappin-Scott, H.M. 2000. Environmental and genetic factors influencing biofilm structure. In Community Structure and Cooperation in Biofilms. pp. 53-64. (Eds. D. Allison, P. Gilbert, H.M. Lappin-Scott and M. Wilson). SGM Symposium Series 59. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Stoodley, P., Wilson, S., Hall-Stoodley, L., Boyle, J.D., Lappin-Scott, H.M. and J.W. Costerton. 2001. Growth and detachment of cell clusters from mature mixed species biofilms. Appl. Env. Microbiol. Vol. 67, No. 12, p. 5608-13.

Hall-Stoodley, L. and Stoodley, P. 2002. Developmental regulation of microbial biofilms. Curr. Opin. Biotech. 13:228-233.

Dunsmore, B.C., Jacobsen, A., Hall-Stoodley, L., Bass, C.J., Lappin-Scott, H.M. and Stoodley, P. 2002. The influence of fluid shear on the structure and material properties of sulphate-reducing bacterial biofilms. J. Industrial Microbiol. Biotech. 29(6):347-353.

Fux, C.A., Stoodley, P. Hall-Stoodley, L., Costerton, W.J. 2003. Bacterial biofilms - a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Expert Review of Anti-Infective Therapy. 1(4): 667-683.

Hall-Stoodley, L., Costerton, J.W., and Stoodley, P. 2004. Bacterial biofilms: from the natural environment to infectious diseases. Nature Reviews Microbiology. 2(2): 95-108.

Post, J.C., Stoodley, P., Hall-Stoodley, L. and Ehrlich, G.D.  2004.  The role of biofilms in otolaryngologic infections. Curr Opin Otolaryngol. 12(3):185-190.

Hall-Stoodley, L. and Stoodley P.  2005.  Biofilm formation and dispersal and the transmission of human pathogens.  Trends in Microbiology. 1:7-10.

Stoodley, P., Kathju, S., Hu, F.Z., Erdos, G., Levenson, J.E., Mehta, N., Dice, B., Johnson, S., Hall-Stoodley, L., Nistico, L., Sotereanos, N., Sewecke, J., Post, J.C. and Ehrlich, G.D.  2005.  Molecular and imaging techniques for bacterial biofilms in joint arthroplasty infections.  Clin Orthop. 437:31-40.

Braxton, E., Ehrlich, G., Stoodley, P., Hall-Stoodley, L., Veeh, R., Hu, F.Z., Fux, C., Quigley, M. and Post, J.C. 2005.  The role of biofilms in neurosurgical device-related infections.  Neurosurg Rev. 28;4:249-255.

Hall-Stoodley, L., Brun, O.S., Polshyna, G.P. and Barker, L.P.  2006.  Mycobacterium marinum biofilm formation reveals cording morphology.  FEMS Microbiology Letters.  257:43-49.

Hall-Stoodley, L., Watts, L.G., Crowther, J.E., Balagopal, A., Torrelles, J.B., Robison-Cox, J., Bargatze, R.F., Harmsen, A.G., Crouch, E.C. and Shlesinger, L.S.  2006.   Mycobacterium tuberculosis binding to human surfactant proteins A and D, fibronectin and small airway epithelial cells under shear conditions.  Infect Immun 74;6:3587-3596.

Hall-Stoodley, L., Hu, F.Z., Gieseke, A., Nistico, L., Nguyen, D., Hayes, J., Forbes, M., Greenberg, D.P., Dice, B., Burrows, A., Wackym, P.A., Stoodley, P., Post, J.C., Ehrlich, G.D., Kerschner, J.E.  2006.  Direct detection of bacterial biofilms on the middle-ear mucosa of children with chronic otitis media.  JAMA 296;2:202-211.

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