Scarlet Shell

I have a passion for understanding how living systems work, as well as for sharing my love of biology and research with the next generation of scientists and informed citizens.

The central goal of my lab is to understand the regulatory mechanisms that underlie mycobacterial stress tolerance. We combine genetics, genomics, transcriptomics and biochemistry to understand how mycobacteria respond to, and ultimately survive, stressful conditions.

Our guiding principles are curiosity, respect, and scientific rigor. Together we strive to push the boundaries of knowledge and advance our field by addressing basic research questions that hold the keys to advancements in human health and understanding of the natural world.

Visit Digital WPI to view student research and projects advised by Professor Shell.

I have a passion for understanding how living systems work, as well as for sharing my love of biology and research with the next generation of scientists and informed citizens.

Visit Digital WPI to view student research and projects advised by Professor Shell.

To treat many infectious diseases, including the global scourge of tuberculosis, doctors must do battle with a wily adversary, bacteria. Unfortunately for afflicted patients, bacteria have also acquired strategies for thwarting attacks from the immune system and the onslaught of antibiotic drugs. We need to know more about the strategies bacteria use to survive stresses. Biology and biotechnology professor, Scarlet Shell, is seeking to do just that by probing the molecular changes that underlie these mechanisms.

Scholarly Work

Martini, M.C., Hicks, N.D., Xiao, J., Barbier, T., Sixsmith, J., Fortune, S.M., and Shell, S.S. Loss of RNase J leads to multi-drug tolerance and accumulation of highly structured mRNA fragments in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. bioRxiv. 2022.02.13.480260; doi: 10.1101/2022.02.13.480260. 2022

Martini, M.C., Sun, H., and Shell, S.S. 2021. RNA sequencing for transcript 5'-end mapping in mycobacteria. Methods in Molecular Biology (Clifton, N.J.), 2314, 513-531. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1460-0_22. 2021

Martini, M.C., Zhang, T., Williams, J.T., Abramovitch, R.B., Weathers, P.J., and Shell, S.S. (2020) Artemisia annua and Artemisia afra extracts exhibit strong bactericidal activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 262:113191. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2020.113191. 2020

Randall, S.E.*, Martini, M.C.*, Zhou, Y., Joubran, S.R., and Shell, S.S. (2020). MamA essentiality in Mycobacterium smegmatis is explained by the presence of an apparent cognate restriction endonuclease. BMC Research Notes. 13(1):462. doi: 10.1186/s13104-020-05302-z. *Joint first authors. 2020

Vargas-Blanco, D.A., and Shell, S.S. (2020). Regulation of mRNA Stability During Bacterial Stress Responses. Frontiers in Microbiology. 11:2111. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.02111. 2020

Media Coverage

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SciTech Daily

Ancient African Remedy Shows Promise Against Tuberculosis in New Study

A team of WPI researchers co-authored a study that suggests a compound in a plant, African wormwood, may be effective against tuberculosis.

Telegram.com

Telegram & Gazette, Scarlet Shell, WPI Professor Receives $1.1 Million Grant for Bacteria Study, 2017-01-12

Scarlet Shell, assistant professor of biology and biotechnology, has received a $1.1 million CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation for a five-year program to study the molecular mechanisms bacteria use to survive stressful conditions of starvation and lack of oxygen.

Scarlet Shell

SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being

Scholarly Work

News

WPI and UMass Lowell Award Seed Grants to Research Teams

The Month in Photos: March 2021

WPI Announces Faculty Promotions and Tenure Awards

WPI Awarded NIH Grant to Identify Sweet Wormwood Plant Compounds Effective Against Tuberculosis Bacteria

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