The aim of the project is to investigate the diversity of virulence factors in enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC). ETEC is one of the most important diarrheal pathogens worldwide and responsible for killing both children and adults in low and middle income countries. ETEC is also a huge problem in the livestock industry in high income countries. ETEC has two main sets of virulence factors, enterotoxins, which is used for defining ETEC, and colonisation factors, which are protein structures enabling the bacteria to adhere to the intestinal cells. By using a combination of bioinformatic and experimental analysis we will investigate the diversity and functionality of known and new putative colonisation factors from ETEC isolates collected from humans and animals.