Studies in the Hultgren lab are leading to new and better techniques for diagnosis and treatment of urinary tract infections. Scientists estimate half of all women will experience a UTI at some point in her life, and additional recurrent UTIs will affect 20 to 40 percent of these patients. Hultgren, who is director of the Center for Women's Infectious Diseases Research, is using a variety of techniques to better understand how the bacteria that cause these infections overwhelm the body's defense mechanisms. In many instances, this involves the bacteria's ability to move through distinct developmental stages, including stages where they form biofilms, cooperative networks in which individual bacteria work together to create structures that collectively increase their resistance to immune system attacks. Hultgren also suspects that some bacteria involved in these infections may be able to slip into an inactive, quiescent phase that lets them return at a later date as a recurrent infection.