Christina Stallings, PhD

Washington University in St. Louis (WU)

Our laboratory focuses on the adaptation of Mycobacteria to host-inflicted stresses and persistent infection. At least 30% of the world’s population is infected with latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which in some individuals will reactivate and cause an estimated 1.8 million deaths a year. This health crisis is exacerbated by the alarming emergence of multi-drug and extensively drug resistant strains. The inadequacies of present Tuberculosis therapies demand the discovery of new agents to treat M. tuberculosis infection, which requires insight into the pathways involved in M. tuberculosis pathogenesis. The general approach of our laboratory is to integrate in vivo disease modeling, molecular biology, and biochemistry to provide answers to the fundamental biological questions regarding molecular pathogenesis and yield therapeutic strategies for treatment of mycobacterial infections.