Welcome to the Alto lab webpage.  We are primarily interested in mechanism by which microbial pathogens cause human infectious disease.   More specifically, our laboratory takes a multidisciplinary approach encompassing molecular biology, biochemistry, microscopy, and structural biology to interrogate bacterial molecules that reprogram human cellular systems.  Ultimately we are attempting to gain key insights that may reveal new leads into drug development and future treatments for emerging antibiotic resistant microbes.

‘Host-pathogen interactions from atoms to biology’

Recent Publications:

Proteolytic elimination of N-myristoyl modifications by the Shigella virulence factor IpaJ.

Burnaevskiy N, Fox TG, Plymire DA, Ertelt JM, Weigele BA, Selyunin AS, Way SS, Patrie SM, Alto NM.

Nature. 2013 Apr 4;496(7443):106-9.

Identification of F-actin as the dynamic hub in a microbial-induced GTPase polarity circuit.

Orchard RC, Kittisopikul M, Altschuler SJ, Wu LF, Suel G, Alto NM. 

Cell 2012 Feb 17;148(4):803-15

The assembly of a GTPase-kinase signaling complex by a bacterial catalytic scaffold. 

Selyunin AS, Sutton SE, Weigele BA, Reddick LE, Orchard RC, Bresson SM, Tomchick DR, Alto NM.

Nature. 2011 Jan. 6;469(7328):107-11

Structural insights into host GTPase isoform selection by a family of bacterial GEF mimics. 

Huang Z, Sutton SE, Wallenfang AJ, Orchard RC, Wu X, Feng Y, Chai J, Alto NM. 

Nature Structure and Molecular Biology. 2009 Aug;16(8):853-60.