Research Projects

We use the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism in which we interrogate the genetic basis for Vibrio cholerae virulence and colonization of related arthropods.  Our lab is building on the 2014 finding that a two component system in V. cholerae, the CrbSR system, influences virulence by manipulating levels of acetate in the Drosophila GI tract.  

Research projects in the lab involve taking genetic, biochemical and bioinformatics approaches to studying mechanisms of signal sensing and transduction that influence bacterial gene expression and host physiology.    

We are also studying the entomopathogen Pseudomonas entomophila in order to understand its mechanisms of Drosophila melanogaster virulence.  This project is in collaboration with Josh Sharp at Northern Michigan University.

We are looking at the conservation of CrbSR-dependent acs expression in Vibrio fischeri, a symbiont of the Hawaiian bobtail squid (right), together with Mark Mandel at University of Wisconsin-Madison! This project will also be incorporated into a course-based undergraduate research experience (CUR) in Biol-271 Microbiology!

In our lab, we use two isolates of V. cholerae from the coast of southern California. These strains, named ‘SIO’ (isolated off the pier at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA) and ‘TP’ (isolated in Torrey Pines Estuary, La Jolla, CA), do not carry the genes required for causing the diarrheal disease cholera, but can serve as model organisms for environmental studies of this species.