Roles
- Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
- Secondary Appointment of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- Director, Undergraduate Program
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Biography
After obtaining my Ph.D. at Oregon State University, I completed my postdoctoral training in host-pathogen interactions under the mentorship of Prof. Hans Wolf-Watz at Ume? University, Sweden. I then held a junior faculty position in the Immunology Section at Lund University, Sweden in which I developed an independent research program. In 2001 I moved to the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine to continue both my research as well as to develop undergraduate educational initiatives. -
Education & Training
Education
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Honors & Awards
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Teaching Interests
Our department leads a dynamic program at the University of Miami that serves both STEM and non-STEM undergraduates. My efforts have been both to strengthen existing courses in our degree program as well as develop entirely new courses that are geared towards a broad student population. Currently I am a major contributor to our main introductory course (MIC 301), an upper-level pathogenesis course (MIC 323), and a non-STEM course on health and the immune system and microbiota (MIC 202). Additionally I am the sole instructor for a course on ‘modern plagues’ (MIC 201) and coordinate an upper-level advanced topics course (MIC 460). Additionally, I contribute to the microbiology curriculum for first- and second-year medical students at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. -
Research Interests
My research interest has always been focused on the interactions between microbial pathogens and their hosts. Initially our efforts were directed at identifying the host cell processes that were ‘targeted’ by microbial virulence factors. This line of investigation resulted in the discovery that eIF2a-mediated regulation of translation, a central stress response in eukaryotic cells, was activated, and at times manipulated, by virulence factors expressed by bacterial pathogens (PMIDs: 19553678; 22761422; 23874749; 24478090; 29311243). More recently our interests is on infections during pregnancy and the highly complex relationships between the mother, fetus, and pathogen. Specifically our efforts are directed at distinguishing between maternal- and fetal-directed responses in the mammalian placenta during infection (PMID: 32839236). -
Publications
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