Dr. Cole is Professor of Microbiology & Immunology and Co-Director of the Graduate Online Certificate in Biohazardous Threat Agents & Emerging Infectious Diseases

Summary:

• B.D.S. (Hons.) University of London, England, 1969
• M.Sc. Brunel University, Middlesex, England, 1972
• Ph.D. University of London, England, 1975
• At Georgetown Since: 1985
• The lab is not currently accepting new Ph.D. students or Post Doctoral Fellows. Please inquire with Dr. Cole if you have any further questions.
• Contact: (202) 687-1817; colem@georgetown.edu

Details:

The major focus of my laboratory is understanding the way in which the mucosal immune system interacts with the commensal microbiota of the oropharynx. The research team pursues longitudinal studies of mother-infant pairs from birth to age two years examining the diversity of streptococci and secretory IgA antibodies in saliva.

Publications

Kirchherr JL, Bowden GH, Cole MF, Kawamura Y, Richmond DA, Sheridan MJ, Wirth KA. Physiological and serological variation in S. mitis biovar 1 from the human oral cavity during the first year of life. Archives of Oral Biology 2006 (in press)

Kirchherr JL, Bowden GH, Richmond DA, Sheridan MJ, Wirth KA, Cole MF. Distribution of S. mitis biovar 1 phenotypes on shedding and non-shedding oral surfaces of human infants during the first year of life. Microbial Ecology in Health & Disease, 2005, 17: 138-145.

Kirchherr JL. Bowden GH. Richmond DA. Sheridan MJ. Wirth KA. Cole MF. Clonal diversity and turnover of Streptococcus mitis bv. 1 on shedding and nonshedding oral surfaces of human infants during the first year of life. Clinical & Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology. 12(10):1184-90, 2005.

Cole MF. Evans MK. Kirchherr JL. Sheridan MJ. Bowden GH. Study of humoral immunity to commensal oral bacteria in human infants demonstrates the presence of secretory immunoglobulin A antibodies reactive with Actinomyces naeslundii genospecies 1 and 2 ribotypes. Clinical & Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology. 11(3):473-82, 2004.