Dr. Erez Mills

Lab Website: Gut Bacteriology Research Group

Publications in Google Scholar

Research Interests:

The complex community of microbes residing in our gut, also known as the gut microbiota, is currently seen as an organ of vertebrate animals which has multiple functions such as food processing and pathogen defense. Our lab is dedicated to the study of the commensal and pathogenic bacterial components of the gut microbiota, and their interactions with each other and the host. A secondary goal is to utilize our knowledge to redesign the gut microbiota to promote the wellbeing of humans and farm animals.

 

List of Publications

  1. Mills, E., and Avraham, R. (2017). Breaking the population barrier by single cell analysis: one host against one pathogen. Current Opinion in Microbiology 36: 69-75. Invited review.
  2. Katsowich, N., Elbaz, N., Pal, R.R., Mills, E., Kobi, S., Kahan, T. and Rosenshine, I. (2017). Host-cell attachment elicits post-transcriptional regulation in infecting enteropathogenic bacteria. Science 355(6326): 735-739.
  3. Mills, E. *, Petersen, E. * , Kulasekara, B.R. and Miller, S.I. (2015). A direct screen for c-di-GMP modulators reveals a Salmonella Typhimurium periplasmic L-arginine-sensing pathway. Science Signaling 8(380): ra57. * equal contribution. Article was featured with a focus written by Ute Romling. Received Cover.
  4. Mills, E. *, Baruch, K. * , Aviv, G., Nitzan, M. and Rosenshine, I. (2013). Dynamics of the type III secretion system activity of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli. mBio 4(4): e00303-13. *equal contribution.
  5. Padavannil, A., Jobichen, C., Mills, E., Velazquez-Campoy, A., Li, M., Leung, K.Y., Mok, Y.K., Rosenshine, I. and Sivaraman, J. (2013). Structure of GrlR-GrlA complex that prevents GrlA activation of virulence genes. Nature Communications 4:2546.
  6. Mills, E. *, Pultz, I.S.*, Kulasekara, H.D. and Miller, S.I. (2011). The bacterial second messenger c-di-GMP: mechanisms of signaling. Cellular Microbiology. 13(8): 1122-9. Invited review. * equal contribution.
  7. Sathiyamoorthy, K., Mills, E., Franzmann, T.M., Rosenshine, I. and Saper, M.A. (2011). The crystal structure of Escherichia coli group 4 capsule protein GfcC reveals a domain organization resembling that of Wza. Biochemistry 50(24): 5465-76.
  8. Nadler, C., Baruch, K., Kobi, S., Mills, E., Haviv, G., Farago, M., Alkalay, I., Bartfeld, S., Meyer, T.F., Ben-Neriah, Y. and Rosenshine, I. (2010). The Type III secretion effector NleE inhibits NF-κB activation. PLoS Pathogens 6 (1): e1000743.
  9. Mills, E. *, Baruch K.*, Charpentier, X.*, Kobi S. and Rosenshine, I. (2008). Real time analysis of effector translocation by the type III secretion system of enteropathogenic E. coli. Cell Host and Microbe 3, 104-113. * equal contribution.
  10. Li M., Rosenshine I., Yu H.B., Nadler C., Mills E., Hew C.L. and Leung K.Y. (2006). Identification and characterization of NleI, a new non-LEE-encoded effector of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC). Microbes and Infection 8 (14-15), 2890-2898.
  11. Fridkin, A., Mills, E., Margalit, A., Neufeld, E., Lee, K.K., Feinstein, N., Cohen, M., Wilson, K.L. and Gruenbaum, Y. (2004). Matefin, a Caenorhabditis elegans germ line-specific SUN-domain nuclear membrane protein, is essential for early embryonic and germ cell development. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 101 (18), 6987-6992.
  12. Parnes, S., Mills, E., Segall, C., Raviv, S., Davis, C. and Sagi, A. (2004). Reproductive readiness of the shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei in a brackish water system. Aquaculture 236, 593-606.
  13. Gruenbaum, Y., Goldman, R.D., Meyuhas, R., Mills, E., Margalit, A., Fridkin, A., Dayani, Y., Prokocimer, M. and Enosh, A. (2003). The nuclear lamina and its functions in the nucleus. International Review of Cell and Molecular Biology (formally international Review of Cytology) 226, 1-62. Invited review.

 

Open Positions

M.Sc. and Ph.D. students needed

for a microbiology lab at the Department of Animal Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture (Rehovot).

Our lab studies the gut microbiota at the population, single species and molecular levels (using methods such as cell culture, qPCR, NGS...) and aim to answer basic and applied science questions such as:

What do bacteria sense in the gut environment? What can it tell us about the gut environment? What are the relationships between gut bacteria? Do they feed one another? Fight one another? Communicate? How are bacteria inherited? Are commensal bacteria inherited through chicken eggs? Can we create a probiotic to reduce infection and mortality in newly hatched chicks?

How to apply: Send your CV and publication list to Dr. Erez Mills – erez.mills@mail.huji.ac.il