School of Medicine
Showing 1-41 of 41 Results
-
Manuel R. Amieva
Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Diseases) and of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy laboratory studies how bacteria colonize our bodies for long periods of time, and how interactions between bacteria and the epithelial surfaces of the gastrointestinal tract and skin may lead to disease. Epithelial surfaces are the first barrier against infection, but they also where our bodies meet and co-evolve with the microbial world.. Several of our studies have focused on the epithelial junctions as a target for bacterial pathogens. The host epithelium uses its epithelial junctions to form a tight but dynamic barrier with an external surface that is inhospitable to microbial attachment, secretes anti-microbial compounds, and has a rapid rate of self-renewal. The balance in the microbe-epithelial relationship results in silent commensalism or symbiosis; an imbalance results in diseases ranging from acute bacterial invasive disease to chronic ulcers or carcinoma.
Our laboratory has developed novel microscopy applications such as quantitative 3D confocal microscopy, electron microscopy, time-lapse imaging, microinjection and micromanipulation to visualize the interaction of pathogens with epithelial cells in culture and in animal and human tissues. Many of out studies focus on the gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori, but we have also expanded our investigations to include the intestinal pathogens Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella enterica, and the skin pathogen and colonizer Staphylococcus aureus. I believe that elucidating how microbes communicate with and alter our epithelial cells at a molecular level will be important for finding novel therapeutic targets to control mucosal colonization and prevent invasive disease.
Using this perspective, we have uncovered several novel concepts of how bacteria colonize and breach our epithelial surfaces. For example, we discovered that Helicobacter pylori target the intercellular junctions, and in particular that the virulence factor CagA affects junction assembly and cell polarity. This confers H. pylori the ability to extract nutrients and grow directly on the epithelial surface. We also found that these properties of CagA have consequences for cellular transformation of the epithelium. For instance, we showed that H. pylori affect the activity and state of epithelial stem cells in the stomach by colonizing the epithelial surface deep in the gastric glands. This gland-associated population is essential for pathological inflammation and hyperplasia in animal models, and confers significant colonization advantages to the bacteria. Our Listeria research uncovered a new mechanism and site where bacteria can breach the gastrointestinal epithelial barrier to invade. We found that Listeria find their receptor for invasion at sites of epithelial senescence, where the epithelial junctions undergo dynamic turnover. To study Salmonella and H. pylori we have developed a human organoid model to study their interactions with human gut epithelium in vitro. To study Staphylococcus aureus pathogenesis, we have developed methods to visualize infection at the scale of a single bacterial microcolony using an organoid culture system of human keratinocytes and fibroblasts that grow into a 3D skin-equivalent. We recently identified several proteins at the eptithelial junctions as host factors involved in the pathogenesis of one of Staphylococcus aureus major toxins. -
Jennifer K. Bando
Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMucosal immunology, innate lymphocytes
-
Helen M. Blau
Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation Professor, Director, Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology and Professor, by courtesy, of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsProf. Helen Blau's research area is regenerative medicine with a focus on stem cells. Her research on nuclear reprogramming and demonstrating the plasticity of cell fate using cell fusion is well known and her laboratory has also pioneered the design of biomaterials to mimic the in vivo microenvironment and direct stem cell fate. Current findings are leading to more efficient iPS generation, cell based therapies by dedifferentiation a la newts, and discovery of novel molecules and therapies.
-
Matthew Bogyo
Professor of Pathology and of Microbiology and Immunology and, by courtesy, of Chemical and Systems Biology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur lab uses chemical, biochemical, and cell biological methods to study protease function in human disease. Projects include:
1) Design and synthesis of novel chemical probes for serine and cysteine hydrolases.
2) Understanding the role of hydrolases in bacterial pathogenesis and the human parasites, Plasmodium falciparum and Toxoplasma gondii.
3) Defining the specific functional roles of proteases during the process of tumorogenesis.
4) In vivo imaging of protease activity -
Paul Bollyky
Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and of Microbiology and Immunology
On Partial Leave from 10/01/2024 To 01/31/2025Current Research and Scholarly InterestsChronic bacterial infections are a major health care problem. Our lab is interested in understanding the host and microbial factors that perpetuate chronic infections and in developing novel therapeutic interventions to improve human health.
-
John Boothroyd
Burt and Marion Avery Professor of Immunology, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe are intereseted in the interaction between the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii and its mammalian host. We use a combination of molecular and genetic tools to understand how this obligate intracellular parasite can invade almost any cell it encounters, how it co-opts a host cell once inside and how it evades the immune response to produce a life-long, persistent infection.
-
Jan Carette
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur research focuses on the identification of host genes that play critical roles in the pathogenesis of infectious agents including viruses. We use haploid genetic screens in human cells as an efficient approach to perform loss-of-function studies. Besides obtaining fundamental insights on how viruses hijack cellular processes and on host defense mechanisms, it may also facilitate the development of new therapeutic strategies.
-
Yueh-hsiu Chien
Professor of Microbiology & Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsContribution of T cells to immunocompetence and autoimmunity; how the immune system clears infection, avoids autoimmunity and how infection impacts on the development of immune responses.
-
Wah Chiu
Wallenberg-Bienenstock Professor and Professor of Bioengineering and of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research includes methodology improvements in single particle cryo-EM for atomic resolution structure determination of molecules and molecular machines, as well as in cryo-ET of cells and organelles towards subnanometer resolutions. We collaborate with many researchers around the country and outside the USA on understanding biological processes such as protein folding, virus assembly and disassembly, pathogen-host interactions, signal transduction, and transport across cytosol and membranes.
-
Laura M.K. Dassama
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
BioLaura Dassama is a chemical biologist who uses principles from chemistry and physics to understand complex biological phenomena, and to leverage that understanding for the modulation of biological processes. Her current research focuses on deciphering the molecular recognition mechanisms of multidrug transporters implicated in drug resistance, rational engineering and repurposing of natural products, and control of transcription factors relevant to sickle cell disease.
-
Mark M. Davis
Burt and Marion Avery Family Professor
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMolecular mechanisms of lymphocyte recognition and differentiation; Systems immunology and human immunology; vaccination and infection.
-
Dylan Dodd
Assistant Professor of Pathology and of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsHarnessing the gut microbiome to treat human disease.
-
Elizabeth Egan
Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Diseases) and of Microbiology and Immunology
On Leave from 10/07/2024 To 12/05/2024Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMalaria is a parasitic disease transmitted by mosquitos that is a leading cause of childhood mortality globally. Public health efforts to control malaria have historically been hampered by the rapid development of drug resistance. The goal of our research is to understand the molecular determinants of critical host-pathogen interactions in malaria, with a focus on the erythrocyte host cell. Our long-term goal is to develop novel approaches to prevent or treat malaria and improve child health.
-
Shirit Einav
Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur basic research program focuses on understanding the roles of virus-host interactions in viral infection and disease pathogenesis via molecular and systems virology single cell approaches. This program is combined with translational efforts to apply this knowledge for the development of broad-spectrum host-centered antiviral approaches to combat emerging viral infections, including dengue, coronaviruses, encephalitic alphaviruses, and Ebola, and means to predict progression to severe disease.
-
Stephen J. Galli, MD
Mary Hewitt Loveless, MD, Professor in the School of Medicine and Professor of Pathology and of Microbiology and Immunology
On Partial Leave from 10/01/2024 To 12/05/2024Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe goals of Dr. Galli's laboratory are to understand the regulation of mast cell and basophil development and function, and to develop and use genetic approaches to elucidate the roles of these cells in health and disease. We study both the roles of mast cells, basophils, and IgE in normal physiology and host defense, e.g., in responses to parasites and in enhancing resistance to venoms, and also their roles in pathology, e.g., anaphylaxis, food allergy, and asthma, both in mice and humans.
-
Leonor García-Bayona
Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe human microbiome is evolving rapidly (i.e. over our lifetimes) following changes in modern lifestyles, especially in industrialized countries. The García-Bayona lab seeks to understand how horizontal gene transfer shapes interactions within the human intestinal microbiota and what the implications of this widespread phenomenon are for community properties relevant to human health (for example, the ability of the gut community to recover after antibiotic treatment). There is currently only a superficial understanding of the different cellular roles of most exchanged genes, the mechanisms governing their spread and their effect community dynamics. Our lab works on bridging the existing gap between the current systems-level observational studies and a mechanistic understanding through bacterial genetics and physiology. We take a bottom-up approach (from genes to communities), incorporating genetics, metagenomics, population analyses and experimental evolution in tractable bacterial consortia.
-
Matthias Garten
Assistant Professor of Microbiology and of Bioengineering
BioMatthias Garten, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the department of Immunology and Microbiology and the department of Bioengineering. He is a membrane biophysicist who is driven by the question of how the malaria parasite interfaces with its host-red blood cell, how we can use the unique mechanisms of the parasite to treat malaria and to re-engineer cells for biomedical applications.
He obtained a physics master's degree from the Dresden University of Technology, Germany with a thesis in the laboratory of Dr. Petra Schwille and his Ph.D. life sciences from the University Paris Diderot, France through his work in the lab of Dr. Patricia Bassereau (Insitut Curie) investigating electrical properties of lipid membranes and protein - membrane interactions using biomimetic model systems, giant liposomes and planar lipid membranes.
In his post-doctoral work at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda in the laboratory of Dr. Joshua Zimmerberg, he used molecular, biophysical and quantitative approaches to research the malaria parasite. His work led to the discovery of structure-function relationships that govern the host cell – parasite interface, opening research avenues to understand how the parasite connects to and controls its host cell. -
Jeffrey S. Glenn, M.D., Ph.D.
Joseph D. Grant Professor and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Glenn's primary interest is in molecular virology, with a strong emphasis on translating this knowledge into novel antiviral therapies. Other interests include exploitation of hepatic stem cells, engineered human liver tissues, liver cancer, and new biodefense antiviral strategies.
-
Michael R. Howitt
Assistant Professor of Pathology and of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur lab is broadly interested in how intestinal microbes shape our immune system to promote both health and disease. Recently we discovered that a type of intestinal epithelial cell, called tuft cells, act as sentinels stationed along the lining of the gut. Tuft cells respond to microbes, including parasites, to initiate type 2 immunity, remodel the epithelium, and alter gut physiology. Surprisingly, these changes to the intestine rely on the same chemosensory pathway found in oral taste cells. Currently, we aim to 1) elucidate the role of specific tuft cell receptors in microbial detection. 2) To understand how protozoa and bacteria within the microbiota impact host immunity. 3) Discover how tuft cells modulate surrounding cells and tissue.
-
KC Huang
Professor of Bioengineering and of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsHow do cells determine their shape and grow?
How do molecules inside cells get to the right place at the right time?
Our group tries to answer these questions using a systems biology approach, in which we integrate interacting networks of protein and lipids with the physical forces determined by the spatial geometry of the cell. We use theoretical and computational techniques to make predictions that we can verify experimentally using synthetic, chemical, or genetic perturbations. -
Peter K. Jackson
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology (Baxter Labs) and of Pathology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsCell cycle and cyclin control of DNA replication .
-
Christine Jacobs-Wagner
Dennis Cunningham Professor, Professor of Biology and of Microbiology and Immunology
BioChristine Jacobs-Wagner is a Dennis Cunningham Professor in the Department of Biology and the ChEM-H Institute at Stanford University. She is interested in understanding the fundamental mechanisms and principles by which cells, and, in particular, bacterial cells, are able to multiple. She received her PhD in Biochemistry in 1996 from the University of Liège, Belgium where she unraveled a molecular mechanism by which some bacterial pathogens sense and respond to antibiotics attack to achieve resistance. For this work, she received multiple awards including the 1997 GE & Science Prize for Young Life Scientists. During her postdoctoral work at Stanford Medical School, she demonstrated that bacteria can localize regulatory proteins to specific intracellular regions to control signal transduction and the cell cycle, uncovering a new, unsuspected level of bacterial regulation.
She started her own lab at Yale University in 2001. Over the years, her group made major contributions in the emerging field of bacterial cell biology and provided key molecular insights into the temporal and spatial mechanisms involved in cell morphogenesis, cell polarization, chromosome segregation and cell cycle control. For her distinguished work, she received the Pew Scholars award from the Pew Charitable Trust, the Woman in Cell Biology Junior award from the American Society of Cell Biology and the Eli Lilly award from the American Society of Microbiology. She held the Maxine F. Singer and William H. Fleming professor chairs at Yale. She was elected to the Connecticut academy of Science, the American Academy of Microbiology and the National Academy of Sciences. She has been an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 2008.
Her lab moved to Stanford in 2019. Current research examines the general principles and spatiotemporal mechanisms by which bacterial cells replicate, using Caulobacter crescentus and Escherichia coli as models. Recently, the Jacobs-Wagner lab expanded their interests to the Lyme disease agent Borrelia burgdorferi, revealing unsuspected ways by which this pathogen grows and causes disease -
Prasanna Jagannathan
Associate Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study innate immunity and immune regulation of Plasmodium Falciparum malaria in children and pregnant women. Our work focuses on understanding how malaria shapes the immune state in individuals following repeated exposure. We are also testing novel interventions to enhance protective immunity against malaria in children via large, randomized controlled trials. Our work in malaria has been based in Eastern Uganda, where malaria transmission is among the highest in the world.
-
Karla Kirkegaard
Violetta L. Horton Professor and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe biochemistry of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase function, the cell biology of the membrane rearrangements induced by positive-strand RNA virus infection of human cells, and the genetics of RNA viruses, which, with their high error rates, live at the brink of error catastrophe, are investigated in the Kirkegaard laboratory.
-
Holden Maecker
Professor (Research) of Microbiology and Immunology
On Partial Leave from 09/15/2024 To 08/31/2025Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI'm interested in immune monitoring of T cell responses to chronic pathogens and cancer, and the correlation of T cell response signatures with disease protection.
-
Edward Mocarski
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research interests focused on the biology and pathogenesis of cytomegalovirus (CMV), an opportunistic pathogen that causes significant disease worldwide, reporting discoveries in areas of CMV gene regulation, DNA replication and packaging, maturation, impact on the host cell, disease pathogenesis, latency and reactivation, host cell death signaling and chemokine system. In the last 20 years of my academic career, we studied viral cell death suppressors and discovered ZBP1-RIPK3 necroptosis.
-
Denise M. Monack
Martha Meier Weiland Professor in the School of Medicine
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe primary focus of my research is to understand the genetic and molecular mechanisms of intracellular bacterial pathogenesis. We use several model systems to study complex host-pathogen interactions in the gut and in immune cells such as macrophages and dendritic cells. Ultimately we would like to understand how Salmonella persists within certain hosts for years in the face of a robust immune response.
-
Antonio J. Pagán
Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Pagán lab is interested in the regulation of immunity and pathogenesis in tuberculosis (TB). TB is characterized by the formation of multicellular aggregates of immune cells called granulomas. We leverage the powerful genetics and imaging capabilities of genetically diverse fish models of TB, which capture key features of human TB granulomas, to address fundamental questions in mycobacterial pathogenesis and granuloma immunobiology.
-
Peter Parham
Professor of Structural Biology and, by courtesy, of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Parham laboratory investigates the biology, genetics, and evolution of MHC class I molecules and NK cell receptors.
-
Trung Hoang Minh Pham
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Diseases) and of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsUncovering mechanisms of tissue immunity and immunophysiology during persistent infection
The immune system safeguards the health of complex organisms by rapidly eliminating invading pathogens, curbing infection-induced tissue disruptions, and maintaining tissue homeostasis. Many bacterial pathogens evade host antimicrobial mechanisms and persist in infected tissues at low levels for long periods of time even in the presence of innate and adaptive immune resistance. During persistent infection, the immune system simultaneously orchestrates antimicrobial responses to contain the pathogen, repairs damaged tissue, regulates nutrient resources, and maintains other tissue physiologic functions to ensure host survival. Failure of any of these tasks leads to uncontrolled infection, devastating disease, and even death. The goals of our research are to understand:
1)What are the innate and adaptive immune cellular mechanisms that contain pathogens during persistent infection?
2)How are tissue physiological functions, such as tissue repair and nutrient regulation, maintained during persistent infection?
3)How do pathogens survive innate and adaptive antimicrobial mechanisms in infected tissues?
4)How does persistent infection impact host immunity to secondary infections of a similar or different pathogen?
Through investigating these fundamental questions, we may be able to decode the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms that can be harnessed to eradicate infections, promote tissue resilience, and restore health after an infectious insult. We employ animal infection models and bring together immunology, tissue biology, microbiology, and genetics to uncover the mechanisms of tissue immunity and immunophysiology during persistent infection from the molecular to organismal level.
Current areas of research:
•Development, maintenance, and plasticity of macrophage functional diversity in infected tissue
•Tissue repair and nutrient regulation during persistent infection
•Cellular dynamics and bacterial persistence in lymphoid organs -
Charles G. Prober, MD
Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Diseases) and, by courtesy, of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research interest is in the epidemiology, pathophysiology, prevention, and treatment of infections in children. Much of this research has focused on viral infections, especially those caused by herpes simplex virus (HSV). I have conducted a number of studies concerned with the epidemiology of HSV-2 infections in pregnant women, their partners, and neonates.
-
David A. Relman
Thomas C. and Joan M. Merigan Professor and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
On Partial Leave from 04/29/2024 To 10/30/2024Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy investigative program focuses on human-microbe interactions and human microbial ecology, and primarily concerns the ecology of human indigenous microbial communities; a secondary interest concerns the classification of humans with systemic infectious diseases, based on features of genome-wide gene transcript abundance patterns and pther aspects of the host response.
-
Peter Sarnow
Burt and Marion Avery Professor of Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur laboratory studies virus-host interactions with an emphasis microRNA-mediated gene regulation and on translational control. The mechanism by which a liver-specific microRNA regulates hepatitis C virus genome replication is under intense scrutiny. In addition, the mechanism of internal ribosome entry in certain cellular and viral mRNAs and its biological role in growth and development is being investigated.
-
David Schneider
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
On Partial Leave from 03/24/2024 To 10/23/2024Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study innate immunity and microbial pathogenesis. We have been studying models for a variety of bacterial infections including: Listeria, Mycobacteria, Salmonella and Streptococcus as well as some fungi, malaria and viruses. Our current focus is to determine how we recover from infections.
-
Robert Siegel
Professor (Teaching) of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy work is primarily involved in medical education and curricular development, especially in the areas of infectious disease, virology, HIV, and molecular biology. Projects included electronic applications to science education, three dimensional model building, service learning, and the development of undergraduate research projects.
-
Justin L. Sonnenburg
Alex and Susie Algard Endowed Professor
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe goals of the Sonnenburg Lab research program are to (i) elucidate the basic mechanisms that underlie dynamics within the gut microbiota and (ii) devise and implement strategies to prevent and treat disease in humans via the gut microbiota. We investigate the principles that govern gut microbial community function and interaction with the host using a broad range of experimental approaches including studies of microbiomes in diverse human cohorts.
-
Hawa Racine Thiam
Assistant Professor of Bioengineering and of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsCellular Biophysical Mechanisms of Innate Immune Cells Functions
-
Taia T. Wang, MD, PhD, MSCI
Associate Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsLaboratory of Mechanisms in Human Immunity and Disease Pathogenesis
-
Priscilla Li-ning Yang
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe apply chemical biology approaches to study fundamental virological processes and to develop antivirals with novel mechanisms of action.
-
Ellen Yeh
Associate Professor of Pathology and of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur research program focuses on understudied microbial ecology as solutions for planet health. We select organisms with important functional traits to understand their evolution, role in the environment, and potential for bioengineering toward sustainability solutions. We are currently working on nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria and algae, genetic screens in diatoms, and algal biofuels.
