Washington University in St. Louis (WU)
The lab is interested in the interaction of pathogenic bacteria with their hosts, with an emphasis on the pathogenesis of infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria. Using Streptococcus pyogenes as a model pathogen, the lab investigates the signal transduction mechanisms used by the bacterium to modulate transcriptome behavior in response to tissue-specific nutrional cues. Also of interest are the pathways for protein secretion that the streptococcus uses to target its various protein toxins to specific host cell compartments during infection.