Principal Investigator
Associate Professor of Ophthalmology, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
Basic Science Director, Charles T. Campbell Microbiology Lab
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Publications
Contact Information
UPMC Vision Institute
UPMC Mercy Pavilion
1622 Locust Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
shanksrm@upmc.edu
Research Focus
Dr. Shanks received his PhD in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology at Tufts Medical School in a laboratory studying chromosome segregation and meiotic recombination using budding yeast as a model organism. He went on to do a postdoctoral fellowship at Dartmouth Medical School in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology on bacterial biofilms. Dr. Shanks’ lab uses molecular genetics to understand mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis of the eye and antibiotic resistance and tolerance. His team is also highly interested in translational research and has projects on drug delivery of biologics to the ocular surface, use of predatory bacteria as living antimicrobials, and antibiotic development using ocular models.