University of Georgia
We use the easy genetic system of a soil bacterium, Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1,to study diverse
aspects of gene expression and chromosomal rearrangements.This research has implications
for medical issues (gene amplification), environmental issues (bioremediation),
biotechnology/bioenergy (conversion of lignin to biofuels), and evolution (new methods for experimental evolution).
Human fungal pathogens, sexual reproduction and development in fungal pathogenesis
Microbial glycobiology lab characterizing bacterial glycoconjugate pathways, bacteriophage interactions with their hosts, and benefits of human milk oligosaccharides to develop novel vaccines and therapeutics for the prevention of diarrheal diseases and post-infectious neuropathies such as Guillain-Barré Syndrome.
Characterizing the assembly of bacterial surface structures, Development of vaccines for viral
and bacterial pathogens, Systems approaches to understanding microbial diseases
Prokaryotic metabolism and physiology with emphasis on protein acetylation, toxic metabolites,
and complex metabolic pathway analysis, integration.
Ecology and physiology of environmental microbes. The use of community genomics and
transcriptomics to examine microbial behavior in natural systems.
We investigate the development and spread of antimicrobial resistant Salmonella, which is the most prevalent foodborne bacterial illness in the U.S.
Bacterial physiology and metabolic integration using biochemical, genetic and metabolomics approaches.
We study CRISPR-Cas immune systems that protect prokaryotes from viruses and provide
powerful research tools for important biotechnology and biomedical applications.
Environmental stress biology, using biochemical, biophysical, and ‘omics approaches to define
the roles of toxic metal exposure in chronic and infectious diseases.
