M. Stephen Trent

Trent,_Stephen-photo-180x180Stephen Trent earned a B.A. in Chemistry at the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. at the James H. Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University. 

He was a Kirschstein NIH Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Christian R. H. Raetz at Duke University before establishing his own laboratory.  Dr. Trent’s laboratory moved to the University of Georgia in 2015 where he is currently a UGA Foundation Distinguished Professor of Infectious Diseases in the School of Veterinary Medicine.  Prior to UGA, Dr. Trent was a Professor in Molecular Biosciences at the University of Texas in Austin.  He has served or is serving as an Editorial Board Member for Molecular Microbiology, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Innate Immunity, and BMC Microbiology.  Dr. Trent is a permanent member of the NIH Bacterial Pathogenesis Study Section and has been a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology since 2014.  He was awarded the Zoetis Award for Research Excellence and the Alois Nowotny Award for his contributions towards understanding the biogenesis of bacterial cell envelopes.  

The Power of Asymmetry:  Architecture and Assembly of the Gram-Negative Outer Membrane Lipid Bilayer

Asymmetry in the outer membrane has long defined the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria. This asymmetry provides clear benefits to the cell, providing an impermeability barrier that protects the cell from a number of stressors in the environment. Work done over the past 5 years has shown that Acinetobacter baumannii has the remarkable capability to inactivate production of lipid A biosynthesis and therefore eliminate the presence of lipooligosaccharide in its outer membrane. The implications of LOS-deficient A. baumannii are far-reaching – from impacts on cell envelope biogenesis and maintenance, bacterial physiology, antibiotic resistance, and virulence.