Hannah Ledvina

Within the Ledvina lab we are interested in the fundamental question of how organisms defend themselves against the multitude of pathogens encountered throughout their lifespan. Specifically, we seek to understand the bacterial immune systems as model for immune signaling throughout the tree of life. Over the last several years the work of Dr. Ledvina and others has demonstrated that bacteria possess a multifaceted immune system composed of diverse pathways geared towards defending against viral pathogens called bacteriophage (phage). Excitingly, components of bacterial phage defense pathways are structurally homologous and functionally analogous to proteins in the human immune system providing us the opportunity to study aspects of immune signaling conserved across the tree of life. During her postdoc in the Aaron Whiteley lab, Hannah made two key discoveries on the bacterial immune system: (1) bacteria regulate their immune pathways using conserved E1/E2 ubiquitin-transferase like enzymes, (2) functional amyloid proteins defend bacteria against predatory bacteria. The findings from this work are the basis of the Ledvina Lab investigating the molecular mechanisms of immune signaling across life.

Dr. Ledvina received her Ph.D. in Microbiology in 2020 from the University of Washington under the mentorship of Dr. Joseph Mougous. Here she investigated the pathogen Francisella tularensis and discovered a secreted virulence factor that modulates host cell vesicle trafficking. Hannah then joined Dr. Aaron Whiteley’s lab at the University of Colorado Boulder where she was a Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral fellow. In 2023 Dr. Ledvina was named a Leading Edge Fellow.

Recent Publications:

1.     Ledvina HE, Sayegh R, Carale RO, Azadeh AL, Macklin AR, Whiteley AT (2025). Functional amyloid proteins confer defense against predatory bacteria. Nature (in press).

2.     Chambers LR, Ye Q, Cai J, Gong M, Ledvina HE, Zhou H, Whiteley AT, Suhandynata RT, Corbett KD (2024). A eukaryotic-like ubiquitination system in bacterial antiviral defence. Nature 631, 843–849. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07730-4

3.     Ledvina HE, Whiteley AT (2024). Conservation and similarity of bacterial and eukaryotic innate immunity. Nature Reviews Microbiology 22, 420–434. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-024-01017-1

4.     Ledvina HE*, Ye Q*, Gu Y, Quan Y, Sullivan AE, Lau RK, Zhou H, Corbett KD, Whiteley AT (2023) A E1-E2 fusion protein primes antiviral immune signaling in bacteria. Nature 616, pages319–325. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05647-4

* Authors contributed equally to this work