Congratulations to Nazema Siddiqui, MD, MHSc, former K12 KURe Scholar in the Collaborating for the Advancement of Interdisciplinary Research in Benign Urology (CAIRIBU) KURe Program at Duke, who was awarded a CAIRIBU Collaboration Award for her proposal, “Development of humanized mouse models for studies of the urogenital microbiome.”
CAIRIBU is a consortium of U54 O’Brien Cooperative Research Centers, P20 Developmental Centers and K12 Career Development Programs established as a collaborative network of transdisciplinary research centers and funded by the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), one of the institutes within the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“We are using germ-free mice with and without estrogen, and populating them with different strains of healthy urinary bacteria,” said Dr. Siddiqui. “Healthy bacteria, like lactobacilli, secrete substances that can counteract other bacteria in the same area. By establishing these animal models, we will eventually be able to test which species and strains of lactobacilli are best suited to fighting pathogens in the bladder. All of this is in the hopes of findings better ways to prevent and treat recurrent UTIs.”
Editor's note: Dr. Siddiqui has been appointed to the American Urogynecologic Society Board as one of the two directors-at-large.