During her lifetime, an adult woman has a 50 chance of developing a urinary tract infection—one of the most common types of infections (1). Most urinary tract infections are caused by strains of the bacterium Escherichia coli, and, for the most part, are easily treated with antibiotics. However, many of these infections become chronic or recurrent because of increasing antibiotic resistance and a variety of other pathogen- and hostrelated factors, leaving few treatment options. Scott J. Hultgren, a professor of molecular microbiology and director of the Center for Women’s Infectious Diseases Research at Washington University in St. Louis, investigates the molecular mechanisms by which bacteria establish infections in the urinary tract and evade the body’s innate defenses. Hultgren, a 2011 member of the National Academy of Sciences, has uncovered many of the factors that determine the onset and severity of these infections, revealing promising therapeutic targets in the process. His work may help to change how urinary tract infections are diagnosed, treated, and prevented.
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