Moxon E Richard
Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, John Radcliffe Hospital, Headington, Oxford OX3 9DS, UK.
Microbiology (Reading). 2009 Apr;155(Pt 4):997-1003. doi: 10.1099/mic.0.024877-0.
Research into Haemophilus influenzae, a commensal and pathogen of humans, has resulted in major scientific contributions to biology. The first endonucleases (restriction enzymes), which paved the way for the new genetics, and the DNA used to obtain the first complete genome sequence of a free-living organism were obtained from H. influenzae. Prevention of invasive bacterial infections of infants, such as meningitis, has been achieved using a novel class of vaccines, of which the glycoconjugates of H. influenzae were the first to be licensed. Originally fallaciously proposed to be the aetiological agent of epidemic influenza, now known to be caused by a virus, H. influenzae is a pathogen of global public health importance. Research into the pathogenesis of the infections it causes (for example, meningitis, septicaemia, pneumonia and otitis media) are case studies in understanding the molecular basis of the variation in gene expression and gene sequences that are critical to its commensal and virulence behaviour and for the strategies that can be pursued to prevent H. influenzae diseases through vaccines.
对人类共生菌和病原菌流感嗜血杆菌的研究，为生物学做出了重大科学贡献。第一种内切核酸酶（限制酶）为新遗传学铺平了道路，用于获得首个自由生活生物体完整基因组序列的DNA也取自流感嗜血杆菌。使用一类新型疫苗实现了对婴儿侵袭性细菌感染（如脑膜炎）的预防，其中流感嗜血杆菌糖缀合物是首个获得许可的疫苗。流感嗜血杆菌最初被错误地认为是流行性感冒的病原体，现在已知流行性感冒是由病毒引起的，它是一种具有全球公共卫生重要性的病原体。对其所引起感染（如脑膜炎、败血症、肺炎和中耳炎）的发病机制的研究，是理解基因表达和基因序列变异分子基础的案例研究，这些变异对其共生和致病行为至关重要，对于通过疫苗预防流感嗜血杆菌疾病可采取的策略也很关键。
