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Vincent Fischetti

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Vincent Fischetti
BornOctober 1940
New York
CitizenshipAmerican
Alma mater
Known for
  • Phage Lysins as antimicrobials
  • Streptococcal M protein
  • Surface proteins on gram-positive bacteria
AwardsNational Institutes of Health Merit Award, 1987 & 1997
Scientific career
Institutions

Vincent A. Fischetti (born 1940) is an American microbiologist and immunologist, and Head of the Laboratory of Bacterial Pathogenesis and Immunology at Rockefeller University in New York City.

He is known for pioneering the use of phage lysins in therapeutics, and as the first scientist to clone and sequence a surface protein on gram-positive bacteria, the M protein from Streptococcus pyogenes, and determine its unique coiled-coil structure.[1][2]

The Fischetti lab is the oldest at Rockefeller, having been started in 1926, and was formerly headed by Homer Swift, Maclyn McCarty and Emil Gotschlich. Fischetti's primary areas of research are bacterial pathogenesis, bacterial genomics, immunology, virology, microbiology, and therapeutics.

Research

Fischetti became an assistant professor at Rockefeller University in 1973, an Associate Professor 1978, and a full Professor in 1990. He later served as the editor-in-chief of scientific journal, Infection and Immunity for 10 years and as section editor of the Journal of Immunology for 5 years.[3][4]

In 1989, the journal Science published Fischetti's research on developing a Streptococcus pyogenes vaccine using an M-protein-based approach, which had been effective at preventing general streptococcal infections in mice. His lab also discovered that surface proteins are anchored in the bacterial cell wall, identifying the sequence used as the anchoring signal.[a][5] In the 1990s, the Fischetti lab was the first to clone and sequence the M protein, making it the first surface protein on gram-positive to be cloned and sequenced. This, combined with subsequent sequence research,[b] had significant implications in vaccine development as well as streptococcal evolution.[6][7] The lab also identified a motif, LPXTG, that was common among nearly all surface proteins on gram-positive bacteria, showing that this motif was an anchoring signal for surface proteins on gram-positive bacteria. This information is now critical for the development of anti-infectives and vaccines, and allows for the surface location of molecules in the bacterial cell can be predicted, leading to the identification of sortase.[8]

By the late 1990s, he was exploring the impact of phage lysins, a novel form of antimicrobial ammunition, as an alternative to antibiotics, and found it to be a novel solution to target specific antibiotic resistant bacteria.[9][10][11] Other research also explored the role of bacteriophage in disease and bacterial survival, showing that lysogenic bacteriophages are activated in vivo in the presence of a small molecule found in saliva.[12] In 2006, Fischetti was developing a lysin-based oral-nasal spray that can be delivered into the noses and mouths of hospital and nursing-home patients to prevent the impact of MRSA.[13] Tests on mice infected with MRSA found their survival rate was significantly improved, leading to the commencement of human testing in 2017.[14] These tests have 'near 40 patents'  and one approach was licensed by Bioharmony Therapeutics, Inc in 2019.[15] Other lysin patents were licensed by ContraFect.[16]

Fischetti's work has also focused on the trigger for multiple sclerosis, and his lab alongside Weill Cornell observed that a gut-derived bacterial neurotoxin may be responsible for the MS trigger.[17]

His postdoctoral students include microbiologist Olaf Schneewind, who identified sortase after leaving the Fischetti lab.[18] Some of Fischetti's popular research includes is 'aged eggnog made with raw eggs is safer than drinking it fresh'.[19][20][21][22]

Personal life

Fischetti grew up in West Hempstead, Long Island, NY, and enrolled at Wagner College on a pre-dental track, before majoring in bacteriology and public health.[2] He graduated in 1962, and went on to receive his master's degree in microbiology from Long Island University in 1967 and a Ph.D. degree in microbiology from New York University School of Medicine in 1970 under Alan Bernheimer.[2] He later conducted postdoctoral research in the McCarty laboratory at Rockefeller University with John Zabriskie and Emil Gotschlich, focussing on lysins.[23] After receiving a Helen Hay Whitney Foundation fellowship, Fischetti spent a year at Albert Einstein College of Medicine under Barry Bloom, working on the isolation of cytokines, before returning to the McCarty lab at Rockefeller University to work on M proteins.[24] Being appointed Assistant Professor in 1974, his study of M protein was funded for 37 years.[25]

Fischetti is known for his role as the primary developer of the use of phage lysins, with his laboratory being the first to use phage lysins as therapeutics.[26][27] His studies on the M protein of Streptococcus pyogenes also revealed basic discoveries on the way surface proteins on gram-positive bacteria were anchored to the peptidoglycan.[28] These findings had critical implications for vaccine development for gram-positive pathogens including streptococci.

Fischetti has also published the ASM book Gram-Positive Pathogens, now in its 3rd edition. He is also a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Technologies

Fischetti has also founded several biotech spinouts from his laboratory. These include M6 Pharmaceuticals in 1994, which developed mucosal anti-infective vaccines, and was reincarnated as Siga Technologies in 1995.[29] Others include the ContraFect Corporation, a biotech started by Robert Nowinski in 2008, which licensed the Fischetti laboratory lysin technology in 2009 and developed a Staphylococcal lysin to treat MRSA.[30][31]

References

  1. ^ "Viruses Are the Antibiotics of the Future". www.vice.com. 7 December 2017. Retrieved 2022-09-27. "I think phage cocktails will have a use, but it will be a boutique treatment," Fischetti told me on the phone. "But phage cocktails are very complex and difficult to deal with, so I think lysins will be accepted before phages will only because it's a purified material and the FDA is more comfortable with that."
  2. ^ a b c "Germfighter". Wagner Magazine. 2011-12-21. Retrieved 2022-09-27.
  3. ^ "Viruses Are the Antibiotics of the Future". www.vice.com. 7 December 2017. Retrieved 2022-09-27. Vincent Fischetti, a professor of immunology at Rockefeller University, shares Chan's skepticism about the FDA ever giving the greenlight to phage therapies. But Fischetti doesn't necessarily think this is a bad thing—in fact, he thinks he's found an even better solution.
  4. ^ "Theresa and Eugene M. Lang Center for Research and Education" (PDF). {{cite web}}: line feed character in |title= at position 27 (help)
  5. ^ "Surface Proteins on Gram-Positive Bacteria". Research. Retrieved 2024-05-16.
  6. ^ Phillips, G N; Flicker, P F; Cohen, C; Manjula, B N; Fischetti, V A (1981-08). "Streptococcal M protein: alpha-helical coiled-coil structure and arrangement on the cell surface". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 78 (8): 4689–4693. doi:10.1073/pnas.78.8.4689. ISSN 0027-8424. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ Hollingshead, S K; Fischetti, V A; Scott, J R (1986-02). "Complete nucleotide sequence of type 6 M protein of the group A Streptococcus. Repetitive structure and membrane anchor". Journal of Biological Chemistry. 261 (4): 1677–1686. doi:10.1016/s0021-9258(17)35993-8. ISSN 0021-9258. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ Fischetti, V.A; Pancholi, V.; Schneewind, O. (1990-09). "Conservation of a hexapeptide sequence in the anchor region of surface proteins from Gram‐positive cocci". Molecular Microbiology. 4 (9): 1603–1605. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2958.1990.tb02072.x. ISSN 0950-382X. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ "Lysin therapy offers new hope for fighting drug-resistant bacteria". News. Retrieved 2022-09-27.
  10. ^ "Scientists engineer human-germ hybrid molecules to attack drug-resistant bacteria". News. Retrieved 2022-09-27.
  11. ^ Storrs, Carina. "Unearthing Anthrax's Dirty Secret: Its Mysterious Survival Skills May Rely on Help from Viruses--and Earthworms". Scientific American. Retrieved 2022-09-27. Then, four years ago, Schuch, along with Vincent Fischetti, a professor of bacteriology at Rockefeller, found a direct link—a type of phage that made anthrax resistant to an antibiotic commonly produced by other bacteria in soil, such as Streptomyces. "The remarkable thing about phages is that they expand the genetic diversity of the host that they infect," says Anca Segall, a phage biologist at San Diego State University. Segall, who calls Schuch and Fischetti's work to uncover the role of new anthracis phages "absolutely spectacular," started sequencing the DNA of phages from marine Bacilli several years ago. Some of the viruses she found induce the aquatic bacteria to sporulate.
  12. ^ Broudy, Thomas B.; Fischetti, Vincent A. (2003-07). "In Vivo Lysogenic Conversion of Tox − Streptococcus pyogenes to Tox + with Lysogenic Streptococci or Free Phage". Infection and Immunity. 71 (7): 3782–3786. doi:10.1128/IAI.71.7.3782-3786.2003. ISSN 0019-9567. PMC 161974. PMID 12819060. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: PMC format (link)
  13. ^ Vaisman, Daria (2006-05-30). "The Soviet method for attacking infection". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2022-09-27. Vincent Fischetti, a professor at the Rockefeller Institute, is designing a phage-based enzyme solution that can be sprayed into the noses and mouths of hospital and nursing-home patients. Fischetti and researchers in Tbilisi are also experimenting with using phages to detect anthrax and cholera in the case of a terrorist attack.
  14. ^ "Human-virus hybrid created to kill off MRSA superbug". The Independent. 2017-04-17. Retrieved 2022-09-27. One of the researchers, Professor Vincent Fischetti, of The Rockefeller University in the US, said: "Bacteria-infecting viruses have molecules that recognize and tightly bind to these common components of the bacterial cell's surface that the human immune system largely misses.
  15. ^ "Bioharmony Therapeutics and Boehringer Ingelheim Collaborate to Advance Bacteriophage Lysin Therapeutics for the Treatment of Multi-Drug Resistant Bacterial Infections". www.businesswire.com. 2019-01-15. Retrieved 2022-09-27. NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bioharmony Therapeutics, Inc. ("Bioharmony"), a biopharmaceutical company focusing on the development of novel therapeutics for hard to treat bacterial infections, announced today that it has entered into a Collaborative Research and Licensing Agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim to develop bacteriophage lysins for the treatment of multidrug resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter infections, a frequent cause of hospital-acquired pneumonia and life-threatening blood or wound infections. Bioharmony licensed this technology from the Rockefeller University. The discoveries are from the laboratory of Vincent A. Fischetti, Ph.D., a faculty member at The Rockefeller University.
  16. ^ Borrell, Brendan (2012-08-01). "Could Bacteria-Fighting Viruses Replace Overused Antibiotics?". Scientific American. Retrieved 2024-05-16.
  17. ^ Ma, Yinghua; Sannino, David; Linden, Jennifer R.; Haigh, Sylvia; Zhao, Baohua; Grigg, John B.; Zumbo, Paul; Dündar, Friederike; Butler, Daniel; Profaci, Caterina P.; Telesford, Kiel; Winokur, Paige N.; Rumah, Kareem R.; Gauthier, Susan A.; Fischetti, Vincent A. (2023-05-01). "Epsilon toxin–producing Clostridium perfringens colonize the multiple sclerosis gut microbiome overcoming CNS immune privilege". The Journal of Clinical Investigation. 133 (9). doi:10.1172/JCI163239. ISSN 0021-9738.
  18. ^ "Olaf Schneewind, world-renowned authority on infectious diseases, 1961-2019 | University of Chicago News". news.uchicago.edu. 30 May 2019. Retrieved 2022-09-27. Born in Germany, Schneewind earned his bachelor of science and his degree in medicine at the University of Cologne. He came to the United States as a postdoctoral fellow at Rockefeller University, where he worked in the laboratory of bacteriology and immunology led by Vincent Fischetti.
  19. ^ "Homemade Eggnog Can Kill Salmonella with Booze". ABC News. Retrieved 2022-09-27.
  20. ^ Arumugam, Nadia. "Why Aged Eggnog Made With Raw Eggs Is Safer Than Drinking It Fresh". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-09-27. Determined to prove, or at least demonstrate with authority, that the copious amount of alcohol in a single batch of the Lancefield recipe (1 pint of Bourbon and 1 quart of rum) is capable of annihilating any salmonella present in the raw egg eggnog after the ageing process, the lab head, Professor Vincent Fischetti, conducted a rudimentary experiment.
  21. ^ Bekiempis, Victoria (2013-10-17). "Multiple Sclerosis Research Points a Finger at Bacteria". Newsweek. Retrieved 2022-09-27.
  22. ^ Ragusea, Adam (28 Nov 2022). "AGE your raw egg eggnog". Youtube.
  23. ^ "Phage-Encoded Endolysins". Antibiotics (Basel). 10 Feb 2021. prepared a highly purified C1 lysin as a resolution of his thesis work at the McCarthy laboratory and this allowed for further detailed studies on how surface proteins of Gram-positive organisms bind to the cell wall
  24. ^ "The Rockefeller University » Laboratory of Bacterial Pathogenesis and Immunology". lab.rockefeller.edu. Retrieved 2024-05-16.
  25. ^ "The Rockefeller University » Laboratory of Bacterial Pathogenesis and Immunology". lab.rockefeller.edu. Retrieved 2022-09-27.
  26. ^ PhD, Julianna LeMieux (2020-08-03). "Lysins Unlimited: Phages' Secret Weapon". GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News. Retrieved 2024-05-16. Vincent A. Fischetti, PhD, the primary developer of the lysin technology, has been on the faculty at the Rockefeller University since 1973. He purified a phage lysin during his thesis work, using it to extract proteins from group A streptococci. Fast forward to the year 2000, Fischetti was, he recalls, 'the right person at the right time.' He added lysin to the throats of mice that had been colonized with streptococcal bacteria. The bacteria died, and the idea to use lysins as a therapeutic was born. Fischetti obtained a broad patent, received two grants from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency select DARPA union and published a string of papers.
  27. ^ "The Rockefeller University » Hospital Centennial". centennial.rucares.org. Retrieved 2024-05-16.
  28. ^ academic.oup.com https://academic.oup.com/femsre/article/32/2/149/2683904. Retrieved 2024-05-16. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  29. ^ "SEC Filing". Dr. Vincent Fischetti, the principal founding scientist of the Company's technologies, at an exercise price of $1.50 per share (the "Fischetti Warrants") {{cite web}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 46 (help)
  30. ^ Borrell, Brendan (2012-08-01). "Could Bacteria-Fighting Viruses Replace Overused Antibiotics?". Scientific American. Retrieved 2024-05-16.
  31. ^ "Bloomberg - Are you a robot?". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2024-05-16. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)


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