Terri Camesano
At WPI, I teach in the department of Chemical Engineering. My favorite teaching activities are working on research projects with graduate and undergraduate students. I love to engage students in the discovery process of research. The work in my lab relates to studying how bacteria attach to different kinds of surfaces. For example, we have been studying whether compounds in cranberry juice can inhibit bacteria from colonizing the cells that line the bladder. We also work on strategies to kill pathogenic bacteria using antimicrobial peptides. These peptides are naturally occurring compounds that can kill different types of bacteria, ranging from foodborne pathogens to bacteria in a hospital environment. Another area I work on is related to environmental engineering. My students are studying whether nanoparticles are toxic toward bacteria that occur naturally in the environment.
