Tezera, Liku Bekele - University of Southampton

个人简介

He did his medical and postgraduate training in medical microbiology at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia and his PhD in 2010 from the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK in Cellular Microbiology through an international student’s research scholarship award. His thesis was about the role of PPAR-γ in innate immunity to pathogenic and commensal Neisseria in the nasopharyngeal mucosa (Cellular Microbiology 2011 13: 554-568). He joined Jon Friedland’s and Paul Elkington’s group at Imperial College as a postdoctoral research fellow in 2011 where he started developing in vitro granuloma models of tuberculosis for investigating the pathology of M.tuberculosis (Mtb) infection. He moved to the University of Southampton in 2012 with Paul Elkington’s research group where he established a novel 3-dimensional model system for Mtb by using the bioelectrospraying technique, which involves an engineering approach to incorporate extracellular matrix (ECM), mycobacteria and different human cells to form an in vitro granuloma system. Using this engineered in vitro granuloma model, he studies the host-pathogen interaction, particularly the role of different ECM components in regulating the well-being of host cells and growth of Mtb in the granuloma. He has received funding from the National Centre for Replacement, Refinement and Reduction (NC3Rs) of animals in research and National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA. Furthermore, this cell culture platform has wide applicability for diverse human diseases and Liku is currently developing a multi-parameter readout that can be applied to a range of biological questions.

研究领域

Liku’s research interest is the development of a physiologically relevant in vitro environment model that mimics human granuloma formation in Tuberculosis (TB). 3-dimensional (3D) cultures have been established to better mimic in vivo with respect to functional and physiological parameters than classical 2D in vitro models. Development of a 3D-model system for M.tuberculosis (Mtb) is critical in the TB field as research relies heavily on animal models, including mice, guinea pigs, rabbits and non-human primates. Such a model will partially replace these animal models, which do not completely reflect the pathology that occurs in human TB. One of the central models he is working on utilizes cellular bioelectrospray technology to encapsulate human cells, extracellular matrix components and live Mtb. Using specially designed encapsulation techniques, many microspheres can be rapidly generated and used for studying host-pathogen interactions (Advanced Functional Materials 2014 ;24: 2648-2657). Results so far demonstrate that cells have excellent viability, aggregate in a collagen-alginate matrix and secrete cytokines and proteases when stimulated with Mtb (Journal of Infectious Diseases 2015; 212: 463-473). There is also comparable growth of Mtb in the microsphere matrix as in liquid media, making this in vitro model a viable alternative to reduce the requirement for TB animal modelling for antimycobacterial drug activity and host-directed therapy.

近期论文

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A bioengineered 3-dimensional cell culture platform integrated with microfluidics to address antimicrobial resistance in tuberculosis - Bielecka, M.K., Tezera, L.B., Zmijan, R., Drobniewski, F., Zhang, X., Jayasinghe, S. and Elkington, P. Published:2017Publication:mBioPage Range:1-46 Dissection of the host-pathogen interaction in human tuberculosis using a bioengineered 3-dimensional model - Tezera, Liku B., Bielecka, Magdalena K., Chancellor, Andrew, Reichmann, Michela T., Al Shammari, Basim, Brace, Patience, Batty, Alex, Tocheva, Anna, Jogai, Sanjay, Marshall, Ben G., Tebruegge, Marc, Jayasinghe, Suwan N., Mansour, Salah and Elkington, Paul T. Published:2017Publication:eLifePage Range:1-47doi:10.7554/eLife.21283 IL-1alpha mediates cellular cross-talk in the airway epithelial mesenchymal trophic unit - Hill, Alison R., Donaldson, Jess E., Blume, Cornelia, Smithers, Natalie, Tezera, Liku, Tariq, Kamran, Dennison, Patrick, Rupani, Hitasha, Edwards, Matthew J., Howarth, Peter H., Grainge, Chris, Davies, Donna E. and Swindle, Emily J. Published:2016Publication:Tissue BarriersVolume:4, (3)Page Range:1-12doi:10.1080/21688370.2016.1206378 Hypoxia and tissue destruction in pulmonary tuberculosis - Belton, M., Brilha, S., Manavaki, R., Mauri, F., Nijran, K., Hong , Y.T., Patel, N., Dembek, M., Tezera, L., Green, J., Moores, R., Aigbirhio, F., Al-Nahtas, A., Fryer, T.D., Elkington, P. and Friedland, J.S. Published:2016Publication:ThoraxPage Range:1-44 Membrane type 1 matrix metalloproteinase regulates monocyte migration and collagen destruction in tuberculosis - Sathyamoorthy, T, Tezera, L.B., Walker, N, Brilha, S., Saraiva, L., Mauri, F.A., Wilkinson, R.J., Friedland, J.S. and Elkington, P.T. Published:2015Publication:The Journal of ImmunologyVolume:195, (3)Page Range:882-891doi:10.4049/jimmunol.1403110PMID:26091717