Campus Box 7615
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7615

walter_dobrogosz@ncsu.edu

	Publications

Walter J. Dobrogosz
Professor Emeritus

Gastrointestinal microbiology; mucosal immunology; mechanisms underlying protection against disease by probiotic bacteria

Research Brief

Laboratory studies, field tests with animals, and clinical trials with humans have proven that probiotic administrations (i.e., live oral doses) of host-specific strains of L. reuteri have significant health-enhancing effects on bacterial, viral, fungal, and protozoal diseases, as well as on a number of chemical-induced diseases. Animal model systems are now being used to study the molecular, physiological, and immunological mechanisms underlying the ability of Lactobacillus reuteri (the predominant heterofermentative Lactobacillus species indigenous to the GI tract in humans and animals) to protect its host from this assortment of microbial and physiological diseases.

Biographical Sketch

Wladyslaw (Walt) Dobrogosz was born on a small dairy farm near Albion, Pennsylvania (almost in view of Lake Erie) to Slavic immigrant parents who were struggling with the uncertain social and economic times of the Great Depression era. His K-12 education took place in the public schools of Erie, Pennsylvania where an overwhelming obsession to play sports was eventually complemented by an interest in 'microbes' (inspired by reading Paul De Kruif's 'Microbe Hunters'). He was admitted into the bacteriology curriculum at Pennsylvania State University, and eventually left that institution (before it became a national gridiron power) with B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees, a lovely wife, and two children. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Illinois (and acquiring another child), Walt accepted an assistant professorship (and another child), in the then newly established Department of Microbiology at North Carolina State University. He has been a member of that faculty ever since, with very few regrets, and none for having chosen a research career in the discipline of microbiology. A shift from basic research on enterobacteria (Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium) to enterolactobacilli (under the sponsorship of a Fulbright fellowship and study leave in Uppsala, Sweden) led to the co-discovery (with Swedish colleague, Sven Lindgren) and patenting of a Lactobacillus reuteri­reuterin technology. This technology (the culmination of a 'microbe hunt' for Elie Metchnikoff's healthy 'lactic bacillus') was commercialized and is now available in international markets as a premier probiotic to enhance human and animal health.