Elisa Margolis

MD/Ph.D. Student

BA Brown University

I have a broad interest in evolutionary medicine and have been engaged in exploring the evolutionary question of why infectious diseases make people sick.   While evolutionary biologists have come up with many
reasons why diseases make people sick they can not account for two observations: most pathogens rarely cause damage and the damage of many pathogens is ultimately due to the host's own immune response. I am interested in exploring the implications of these observations on the evolution of virulence.  In order to test why most pathogens rarely cause disease I have tested whether within-host evolution occurs during
colonization of commensal bacteria, whereby in the colonizing population an invasive strain evolves and
is responsible for bacteremias.  I am also exploring the evolutionary consequences of immune over-responses, in particular the formation of bacterial abscesses as an immune response which hinders clearance and provides
a refugee for bacteria.

Publications

Margolis, E. (2009) Hydrogen peroxide mediated interference competition by Streptococcus pneumoniae has no significant effect on Staphylococcal nasal colonization of neonatal rats J. Bact. 191: 571-575 [PDF]

Handel, A, Margolis E and B.R. Levin (2008) Exploring the role of the immune response in preventing antibiotic resistance(Theoretical Biology 1095-8541 Electronic – E published ahead of print) [PDF]

Margolis, E. and B. R. Levin (2008) The evolution of bacteria-host interactions: virulence and the immune over-response. IN “ Introduction to the Evolutionary Biology of Bacterial and Fungal Pathogens ” J-A. Gutteriez and F.M. Baquero Editors (ASM Press) - Also to be published in an Institute of Medicine (IOM) workshop report in honor of Joshua Lederberg [PDF]

Margolis, E. and B.R. Levin 2007 Within–Host Evolution for the Invasiveness of Commensal Bacteria: an experimental study of bacteremias resulting from Haemophilus influenzae nasal carriage, Journal of Infectious Disease 175: 1069-1075 [PDF]