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The overarching goal of our lab’s research program is to investigate host-microbe interactions in the gut during intestinal infection and inflammation. Applying expertise in microbiology, host intestinal biology, mouse models of intestinal infection and inflammation and in vitro intestinal cell models, we examine the mechanisms employed by bacteria to colonize the gut, resist host defenses, and cause disease as well as the mechanisms by which the host responds to microbes and other inflammatory stimuli.
We have identified and characterized a number of bacterial genes that are necessary for virulence and/or fitness within the host intestine. Our lab was also the first to apply a forward genetics approach to the Citrobacter rodentium mouse model of intestinal infection, discovering a new pathway that determines disease tolerance versus mortality following infection. Our recent work investigates the emerging role of the gut-brain axis and intestinal inflammation in Parkinson’s Disease.