Division
- Dartmouth Medical School, Postdoctoral Fellowship, Microbiology and Immunology
- Tufts Sackler School of Biomedical Sciences, PhD, Molecular Microbiology
- Alfred University, BA, Biology
Education & Training
Awards
Barbara and Bruce Wiegand Entrepreneurial Award, 2024
Representative Publications
Research Interests
The major goals of the laboratory are:
- Discover mechanisms of bacterial virulence factor regulation including biofilm formation
- Host-pathogen interactions between ocular pathogens and the cornea
- Conduct translational/applied research to develop new antimicrobials and molecular tools to manipulate microbes
The microbes that we focus on are Serratia marcescens, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus, as these are major causes of corneal infections and antibiotic-resistant hospital infections. We are also interested in using predatory prokaryotes, bacteria that eat other bacteria, as a potential new therapeutic approach to fighting antibiotic resistant ocular infections.
Our approach is to exploit the power of molecular genetics to gain insights into complex biological processes. This is then coupled with microscopy, biochemistry and molecular biology to gain insight into molecular mechanisms.