Dr. Racki [HHMI Fellow] is studying metabolism of compounds called polyphosphates in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterial pathogen that can lead to lethal infections in immunocompromised cancer patients. Polyphosphates, inorganic polymers linked by specific chemical bonds, play a role in virulence in P. aeruginosa, but are also evolutionarily ubiquitous and found from bacteria to mammalian cells. A better understanding of polyphosphate metabolism in a model bacterial pathogen may aid in the design of treatments for cancer-associated pathogens and may also shed light on the poorly understood role of polyphosphates in mammalian cell growth.