Plant and Microbial Biosciences

Program affiliation
Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology
Computational and Systems Biology
Molecular Cell Biology
Plant and Microbial Biosciences

Research summary
Understand how function is encoded into disordered sequences using a combination of computational and experimental approaches

Key words
Disordered proteins, IDPs, IDRs, phase transitions, emergence, deep learning, AI, bird-themed software packages

Program affiliation
Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis
Plant and Microbial Biosciences
Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology
Molecular Cell Biology

Research summary
Interdisciplinary approach combining genetics, genomics, biochemistry, structural biology, high-resolution imaging, animal models, clinical studies and combinatorial chemistry to determine key aspects of bacterial pathogenesis and apply our knowledge to development of new therapeutics.

Key words
antibiotic-sparing therapeutics, host-pathogen interactions, bacterial pathogenesis, drug and vaccine development, multi-drug resistant E. coli, MRSA, Enterococcus, Acinetobacter, Klebsiella, urinary tract infections (UTI)

Program affiliation
Plant and Microbial Biosciences
Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology

Research summary
Exploring regulatory networks in metabolism - structural biology and biochemistry of plants and microbes

Key words
biochemistry, enzymology, plant biology, protein engineering, protein structure, structural biology

Program affiliation
Plant and Microbial Biosciences
Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis
Molecular Genetics and Genomics

Research summary
Molecular genetic analysis of disease development in Pseudomonas syringae-Arabidopsis interactions

Key words
plant-microbe interactions, bacterial pathogenesis, auxin, IAA, Type III effector protein, genetics, plant biology

Program affiliation
Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis
Plant and Microbial Biosciences
Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology
Computational and Systems Biology

Research summary
Human immunodeficiency virus-host interactions

Key words

Program affiliation
Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis
Plant and Microbial Biosciences
Molecular Cell Biology
Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology

Research summary
We study how bacterial defend themselves from their viral predators, bacteriophage.

Key words
bacteria, phage, bacteriophage, virus

Program affiliation
Plant and Microbial Biosciences
Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis
Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology
Molecular Cell Biology

Research summary
Bacterial growth and antibiotic susceptibility

Key words
Bacterial, growth size, antibiotics, tolerance, antibiotic resistance, systems biology, cytoskeleton, biochemistry, microbiology, microscopy

Program affiliation
Computational and Systems Biology
Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis
Plant and Microbial Biosciences

Research summary
A computational and experimental lab studying bacterial colonization and transmission at the boundary of built and natural environments and exploring microbiomes as environmental sensors and public health sentinels

Key words

Program affiliation
Plant and Microbial Biosciences

Research summary

Key words

Program affiliation
Plant and Microbial Biosciences
Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis

Research summary
How the environment shapes host-associated microbial communities both within and across species

Key words
Gut microbiome, nonhuman primates, environmental health