Barbara Hotham Iglewski (born 1938) is an American microbiologist. She is director of international programs at the

University of Rochester Medical Center The University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC), now known as UR Medicine, is located in Rochester, New York, is one of the main campuses of the University of Rochester and comprises the university's primary medical education, research and pat ...

where she is a professor of microbiology and immunology.

Early life and education

Barbara Hotham Iglewski was born in 1938. Her father was a country physician and she would accompany him on house calls during her youth. She attended

Allegheny College he, תגל ערבה ותפרח כחבצלת , mottoeng = "Add to your faith, virtue and to your faith, knowledge" (2 Peter 1:5)"The desert shall rejoice and the blossom as the rose" (Isaiah 35:1) , faculty = 193 ...

, earning a B.S. in biology in 1960. She then studied microbiology at Pennsylvania State University, earning her M.S. in 1962 and her Ph.D. in 1964. Iglewski instructed at

Oregon Health and Science University Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

School of Medicine before she was hired as a professor by the

. She was the first woman to chair a department at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, heading the department of microbiology and immunology from 1986 to 2009. From 1995 to 1998 she was the vice provost for research and graduate education.

Research

Iglewski's research has centered on the pathogenesis of the ''

Pseudomonas aeruginosa ''Pseudomonas aeruginosa'' is a common encapsulated, gram-negative, aerobic–facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped bacterium that can cause disease in plants and animals, including humans. A species of considerable medical importance, ''P. aerug ...

'' bacterium. She discovered that a type I

quorum sensing In biology, quorum sensing or quorum signalling (QS) is the ability to detect and respond to cell population density by gene regulation. As one example, QS enables bacteria to restrict the expression of specific genes to the high cell densities at ...

system globally regulated virulence in a human pathogen. She has discovered exoenzymes and toxins including exo S, a type 3 secreted ''Pseudomonas'' toxin. She is well known for describing the molecular mechanism of action of Pseudomonas toxin A. Her work with Peter Greenberg demonstrated that

gram-negative bacteria Gram-negative bacteria are bacteria that do not retain the crystal violet stain used in the Gram staining method of bacterial differentiation. They are characterized by their cell envelopes, which are composed of a thin peptidoglycan cell wall ...

produce AHL signals that control processes such as

biofilm A biofilm comprises any syntrophic consortium of microorganisms in which cells stick to each other and often also to a surface. These adherent cells become embedded within a slimy extracellular matrix that is composed of extracellular ...

formation in neighboring cells of the same species. She currently studies the regulation of biofilm development and virulence in ''Pseudomonas aeruginosa''. Iglewski has published more than 150 research papers and book chapters. She holds seven patents. She has been recognized by the

Institute for Scientific Information The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) was an academic publishing service, founded by Eugene Garfield in Philadelphia in 1956. ISI offered scientometric and bibliographic database services. Its specialty was citation indexing and analysi ...

as a highly cited researcher.

Awards and honors

In 1987, Iglewski was made an Honorary Lifetime Member of Graduate Women in Science, formerly Sigma Delta Epsilon for research in microbiology and Immunology. Iglewski became a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 1986. She was president of the

American Society for Microbiology The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), originally the Society of American Bacteriologists, is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. It wa ...

(ASM) from 1987 to 1988. She chaired ASM's publications board from 1990 to 1999. She received the Arthur Kornberg Research Award in 1999 and the Susan B. Anthony Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. The University of Rochester's School of Medicine and Dentistry awarded her its Lifetime Mentoring Award in 2009. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2015.

Personal life

Iglewski lives in

Gorham, New York Gorham is a town in Ontario County, New York, United States. The population was 4,130 at the 2020 census. The town is named after Nathaniel Gorham. The Town of Gorham is at the southern border of the county, southeast of Canandaigua. History ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iglewski, Barbara 1938 births Living people Allegheny College alumni American bacteriologists Oregon Health & Science University faculty Eberly College of Science alumni People from Gorham, New York University of Rochester faculty Women microbiologists Scientists from New York (state)