Education
- Postdoctoral, Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, 2016
- Postdoctoral, Pathology and Microbiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, 2010
- PhD, Microbiology, Kansas State University, 2009
- MS, Department of Biological Sciences, Fort Hays State University, 2005
- BS, Department of Biological Sciences, Fort Hays State University, 2003
Research Interests
Microbiology, bacterial genetics, bacterial physiology, virulence, co-infection host-pathogen interactions, innate immunity, immunometabolism, wound repair, diabetic infections
Research Summary
By 2035, more than 500 million people worldwide will be diagnosed with diabetes. Individuals with diabetes are prone to frequent and invasive infections that commonly manifest as skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs). S. aureus is the most frequently isolated pathogen from diabetic SSTI. S. aureus is a problematic pathogen that is responsible for tens of thousands of invasive infections and deaths annually in the US. Most S. aureus infections manifest as SSTIs that are usually self-resolving. However, in patients with comorbidities, particularly diabetes, S. aureus SSTIs can disseminate resulting in systemic disease including osteomyelitis, endocarditis and sepsis. The goal of my research is to understand the complex interactions between bacterial pathogens and the host innate immune response with focus on S. aureus and invasive infections associated with diabetes. The research in the lab is roughly divided into three project areas. For the first project we are trying to elucidate the mechanisms that allow S. aureus and other pathogens to become hyper-invasive during diabetic infections. The goal of the second project is to understand the factors in diabetic infections that cause immune suppression and worse infection outcomes. In the third project we are examining mechanisms that cause antibiotic treatment failure in diabetic infections.
Available to Mentor
Undergraduate and Graduate Students