Deborah J. Stearns-Kurosawa, PhD

Emeritus Associate Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Biography

Graduate Education and Administration
My position as Associate Provost and Associate Dean ad interim has oversight of the PhD and Master's programs within the Graduate Medical Sciences of BU's School of Medicine. Our group takes care of the graduate students from matriculation to graduation and alumni development. My responsibilities are to ensure we provide the highest quality graduate education in the basic and biomedical sciences. Providing resources, budgets, high caliber faculty, thought leaders and career opportunities are our priorities. Our diverse students not only learn the latest in their field of interest, but contribute to paradigm shifts and moving their field forward.

Research Interests (joint appointment in Department of Pathology)
Why is it that some people get a bacterial infection, feel lousy for a few days, take antibiotics and then forget about it when they go back to class or work, but other people get the same infection and die in two weeks in the intensive care unit? It’s all about what pathogen is invading and how our bodies respond to the infection. It’s a highly orchestrated response that requires input from our immune, coagulation, neurologic, and inflammatory pathways. Research interests include:

• Study of enterohemorrhagic Shiga toxin-producing E.coli infection and the toxins from these bacteria. The E.coli O157:H7 serotype is the most common clinical problem.
• Development of models and cell systems to study thrombotic microangiopathies such as HUS, aHUS,TTP and the related DIC

Publications

  • Published 1/1/2021

    Hall G, Kurosawa S, Stearns-Kurosawa DJ. Infection of Immunocompetent Conventional Mice with Shiga Toxin-Producing E. coli: The DSS + STEC Model. Methods Mol Biol. 2021; 2291:353-364. PMID: 33704763.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/17/2019

    Feng F, Thompson MP, Thomas BE, Duffy ER, Kim J, Kurosawa S, Tashjian JY, Wei Y, Andry C, Stearns-Kurosawa DJ. A computational solution to improve biomarker reproducibility during long-term projects. PLoS One. 2019; 14(4):e0209060. PMID: 30995241.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 10/25/2018

    Hall G, Kurosawa S, Stearns-Kurosawa DJ. Dextran Sulfate Sodium Colitis Facilitates Colonization with Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli: a Novel Murine Model for the Study of Shiga Toxicosis. Infect Immun. 2018 11; 86(11). PMID: 30150257.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 2/27/2018

    Kara V, Duan C, Gupta K, Kurosawa S, Stearns-Kurosawa DJ, Ekinci KL. Microfluidic detection of movements of Escherichia coli for rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing. Lab Chip. 2018 02 27; 18(5):743-753. PMID: 29387860.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 9/19/2017

    Hall G, Kurosawa S, Stearns-Kurosawa DJ. Shiga Toxin Therapeutics: Beyond Neutralization. Toxins (Basel). 2017 Sep 19; 9(9). PMID: 28925976.

    Read at: PubMed

Other Positions

  • Member, Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research
    Boston University
  • Member, Genome Science Institute
    Boston University

Education

  • Cleveland State University, PhD
  • Pennsylvania State University, BS