About
Editors and people

Editors for Microbiology and Infectious Disease

We aim to review studies that provide new insights into fundamental mechanisms, and cell growth and metabolism, in all microbes. We also welcome studies of all types of interactions between microorganisms in communities and between microbes and multicellular organisms, in both pathogenic and commensal interactions, including but not limited to investigations into the microbiome, microbial ecology, mycology, pathology, parasitology, and virology. Read the latest research in this subject area.

Type

Senior editors

Miles P Davenport

University of New South Wales, Australia

Miles Davenport is Professor of Medicine and Head of the Infection Analytics Program at the Kirby Institute for Infection and Immunity at UNSW Sydney. He graduated in medicine from the University of Sydney and completed his DPhil at the University of Oxford in immunology before retraining in mathematical biology. He leads a team of applied mathematicians who use statistical analysis and modelling to understand host-pathogen interactions in infection and immunity. This involves collaboration with a wide variety of experimental and clinical scientists both in Australian and internationally. Major areas of investigation include understanding HIV latency, malaria immunity and treatment, and neonatal immune development. He is a past-President of the Australasian Society for Immunology and is supported by an NHMRC (Australia) Investigator grant.

Expertise
Immunology and Inflammation
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Epidemiology and Global Health
Medicine

Research focus
virology
immunity
vaccines
HIV/AIDS
mathematical modelling
host-pathogen interactions
biostatistics

Competing interests statement
Miles Davenport receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia), the Australian Research Council, and the National Institutes of Health (USA). He is an Associate Editor at PLoS Computational Biology and on the Editorial Board of Immunology and Cell Biology.
Neil Ferguson

Imperial College London, United Kingdom

Neil Ferguson is Head of the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College London, where he leads the MRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling. His research aims to improve the understanding of epidemiological factors and population processes that shape infectious disease spread in human and animal populations. A practical focus of his work is the analysis and optimisation of intervention strategies that are aimed at reducing transmission or disease burden.

Expertise
Epidemiology and Global Health
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Medicine

Research focus
epidemiology and infectious disease
emerging infections
mosquito-borne infections
statistical and mathematical tools
Wendy S Garrett

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, United States

Wendy Garrett is a Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, co-Director of the Harvard Chan Center for the Microbiome in Public Health, and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute. Her work explores host-microbiota interactions underlying mucosal immune homeostasis, gastrointestinal inflammatory disorders, and cancer. She graduated from the Yale College; received her MD PhD from Yale University and completed post-graduate training at Harvard.

Expertise
Immunology and Inflammation
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Medicine

Research focus
host-microbiota interactions
microbiome
mucosal immunology

Competing interests statement
Wendy Garrett serves on advisory boards of Evelo Biosciences, Kintai Therapeutics, and Leap Therapeutics. She is a member of the Cell Reports and Journal of Clinical Microbiology editorial boards.
Diane M Harper

University of Michigan, United States

Diane M Harper, MD, MPH, MS, completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the fields of Chemical Engineering and Polymerics. She received her medical and public health degrees from the University of Kansas in Kansas City, where she also did residencies in Gynecology/Obstetrics and Family Medicine. Dr Harper has spent the majority of her professional career at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, as clinician, teacher and researcher in the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Community and Family Medicine and Women’s and Gender Studies, including improving life for LGBTQ.

She has received the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) Excellence in Education Award and the Curtis Hames Research Award honoring her for changing medical care for women through evidence based research. She served as the Chair of Family and Geriatric Medicine at the University of Louisville during which time she also served on the United States Preventive Services Task Force.

She currently is a tenured Professor at the University of Michigan, serving as the Director for Research Management within the Michigan Institute of Clinical and Health Research, one of 50 Clinical and Translational Science Award Research Hubs across the United States. To date she has over 250 peer reviewed publications with over 27,000 citations, and over 40,000 downloads of her seminal review of HPV vaccines.

While at Dartmouth she developed and directed the Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Research Group based at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center in which research on all aspects of HPV associated diseases, specifically cervical cancer prevention was conducted. She is an internationally recognized expert on Human Papillomavirus, the cause of cervical cancer, and its prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines. She has published the seminal clinical research on HPV vaccines and lectured internationally in over 100 countries. She has served on NCI research committees, European research study sections, addressed the Council on Foreign Affairs, and served as a technical advisor to the World Health Organization. Dr Harper has been honored as one of the top clinicians in her field in the US, and Family Physician of the Year in New Hampshire in 2006.

Expertise
Medicine
Epidemiology and Global Health
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Immunology and Inflammation

Research focus
HPV associated diseases
primary care
women's health
cancer precursor detection
health behaviours
epidemiology
cancer screening

Experimental organism
human

Competing interests statement
Diane Harper has received funding from NCI, NCATS, NHLBI, CDC, multiple national philanthropic organizations, including the American Cancer Society, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Susan G Komen Foundation, in addition to state and local funding agencies and collaborations with industry. She serves in editorship capacities on boards including the Annals of Family Medicine, Preventive Medicine Reports, PLoS ONE, and Gynecologic Oncology. She is a peer reviewer for The Lancet, The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, among other journals.
Bavesh Kana

University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

Bavesh Kana directs the DSI/NRF Centre of Excellence for Biomedical TB Research, a national Centre of Excellence with nodes at University of the Witwatersrand, Stellenbosch University and the University of Cape Town. He is a research fellow at the Centre for AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa and a consultant for the South African Medical Research Council and the Bill and Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute in Cambridge, USA. He obtained his PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand, and has conducted research visits at the University of Pennsylvania, the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Texas A&M University, the Public Health Research Institute in New Jersey and Harvard Medical School. He studies tuberculosis with a focus on identifying new drug targets implicated in remodelling of the peptidoglycan layer in the cell wall of the tubercle bacteria that cause this disease. His research extends to the clinical setting in South Africa, where he has developed several cohorts to study treatment response in individuals infected with tuberculosis and HIV, with an emphasis on eradicating persister organisms and shortening treatment duration. He has also been involved in the development of proficiency and quality assurance reagents for scaled deployment of infectious disease molecular diagnostics in resource-limited settings. Among the awards he has received are an appointment as an Early Career Scientist of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, selection as one of the 200 top young South Africans by the Mail and Guardian newspaper, the South African Medical Research Council scientific merit award for outstanding lifetime scientific contribution to health research, and the Vice Chancellors Innovation Award. He received the CEO Titan Award for meaningful contributions to shift the African landscape and has been involved in various spinout biotech companies in South Africa and internationally. He is a member of the Health Professions Council of South Africa and the Academy of Science of South Africa.

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
tuberculosis
tuberculosis-HIV
bacterial dormancy
bacterial persistence
differential culturability
peptidoglycan
bacterial cell walls
bacterial energy metabolism
tuberculosis drugs
drug resistance

Experimental organism
M. tuberculosis
M. smegmatis
E. coli
SARS-CoV-2

Competing interests statement
Bavesh Kana has received funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, United States National Institutes of Health, European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), South African Department of Science and Technology/Innovation, South African National Research Foundation, South African Medical Research Council, National Health Laboratory Services and the University of the Witwatersrand. He is a co-founder of and scientific advisor to SmartSpot Quality CC and scientific advisor to the Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Microscopy and Microanalysis Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand, Cape Town HVTN laboratory and Olilux Biosciences (USA).
Päivi Ojala

University of Helsinki, Finland
Imperial College London, United Kingdom

Päivi Ojala is the Professor of Cancer Cell Biology at University of Helsinki and Chair of Viral Tumorigenesis at Imperial College London. She has made significant contributions to the Kaposi’s Sarcoma herpesvirus (KSHV) field and has more recently focused also on the role of lymphatic endothelial microenvironment on cancer cell metastasis. She has expertise in organotypic 3D co-culture models, cell-based high-content screens, protein kinase signalling and viral technologies. Her work has led to demonstration of restoration of p53 function by small molecule inhibitors as a therapeutic modality for KSHV-induced lymphomas, identification of host Pim kinases, nucleophosmin, and the p53-p21 axis as novel regulators of viral replication, and shown that KSHV infection reprograms lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs) to a new, more invasive cell type. They have also demonstrated that LEC interaction with melanoma cells leads to increased distant organ metastasis in vivo, which is dependent on MMP14, Notch3 and b1-integrin- Dr. Ojala holds a doctoral degree in Molecular Genetics from the University of Helsinki, and has received postdoctoral training at the Yale School of Medicine, CT, USA.

Expertise
Cancer Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
human tumor viruses
virus-host interactions
cancer metastasis
notch signaling
lymphatic endothelial transcription factors
CAR T cell therapies

Experimental organism
human primary and cancer cells
immunocompromised mouse

Competing interests statement
Päivi Ojala receives funding from the Academy of Finland, Sigrid Juselius Foundation, Cancer Foundation Finland and University of Helsinki.
John W Schoggins

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, United States

John Schoggins is a tenured Professor in the Department of Microbiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center. His lab studies innate immunity at the virus-host interface, with an emphasis on the discovery of novel genetically encoded antiviral proteins, their mechanisms of action, and their roles in mouse models of viral pathogenesis. He received a BS in Chemistry from University of Rochester, a PhD in Molecular Biology from Weill Cornell Medical College, and he trained as an NRSA-funded postdoctoral fellow in Virology and Infectious Diseases at The Rockefeller University. John is a Rita Allen Foundation Scholar (2015) and a recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (2014) and the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award (2020).

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Immunology and Inflammation

Research focus
virology
immunology
infectious diseases
host-pathogen interactions

Experimental organism
human
mouse
bats

Competing interests statement
John Schoggins receives funding from the The National Institutes of Health, The Clayton Foundation, The Burroughs Wellcome Fund, and The Welch Foundation. He is an Editor at mShpere and on the Editorial Boards of Journal of Virology and Cytokine Growth Factors and Reviews.
Dominique Soldati-Favre

University of Geneva, Switzerland

Dr Dominique Soldati-Favre studied biochemistry and earned her PhD degree in molecular biology from the University of Zürich (Switzerland). She is full Professor at the department of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva. Her laboratory is studying obligate intracellular parasitism using Toxoplasma gondii. The main line of research focuses on the cell biology underlying parasite active invasion into mammalian cells. Her group is also aiming at defining the metabolic needs and capabilities of the parasites as well as how they subvert host cellular functions notably to access nutrients.

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
parasitology
organelle biogenesis
protein trafficking
metabolism
host pathogen interaction
signalling

Experimental organism
T. gondii
apicomplexans
kinetoplastids

Competing interests statement
Dominique Soldati-Favre’s research is currently funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. She serves as Section Editor at PLOS Pathogens, and Editor at mBio.
Jos WM van der Meer

Radboud University Medical Centre, Netherlands

Jos WM van der Meer is emeritus Professor of Medicine at Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Between 1992 and 2012 he was head of the Department of internal medicine at the Radboud University Medical Centre. His major areas of expertise are host defence against infection, trained immunity, autoinflammation, immunodeficiency and antimicrobial policy.

Expertise
Medicine
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
infectious disease and host defense
innate immunity
trained immunity
immunodeficiency
autoinflammatory diseases
chronic fatigue syndrome

Experimental organism
human
mouse

Competing interests statement
Jos WM van der Meer is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), for which he served as a vice-president from 2005 to 2011. He is a member of Academia Europaea and he is past-president of EASAC, the European Academies Science Advisory Council. He is an honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London and in Edinburgh and a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious diseases. He is a member of the Dutch National Board for Research Integrity LOWI. He received a number of prices and awards, such as the Gold Hijmans van den Bergh medal. He was awarded knighthood in the order of the Netherlands Lion in 2003.

Reviewing editors

Fernán Agüero

Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Argentina

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Computational and Systems Biology
Evolutionary Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Immunology and Inflammation
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
genomics
drug discovery
diagnostics
infectious diseases
microbial eukaryotes
bioinformatics
Sonja V Albers

University of Freiburg, Germany

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
molecular biology of Archaea
Sulfolobus
Haloferax
Musa Ali

Hawassa University, Ethiopia

Expertise
Epidemiology and Global Health
Genetics and Genomics
Immunology and Inflammation
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
infectious diseases
antimicrobial resistance
molecular epidemiology
hospital-acquired infection
Warren Andayi

Murang'a University of Technology, Kenya

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
chemical biology
drug discovery
drug development
phytochemistry
infectious diseases
pharmacology
organic synthesis
analytical chemistry
STEM education
Caetano Antunes

University of Kansas, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
microbiome
host-microbe interactions
metabolomics
gene regulation
microbial signaling
Rebecca Bart

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, United States

Expertise
Plant Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
host-pathogen-environment interactions
non-model organisms
cassava
Xanthomonas
genetics
genomics
Ethel Bayer-Santos

Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
pathogenesis
infection biology
toxins
secretion systems
effectors
interbacterial interactions
Christine Beemelmanns

Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology, Germany

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Ecology

Research focus
microbe-host interactions
natural products
total synthesis
symbiosis
bioorganic synthesis
sphingolipids
Marc J Bonten

University Medical Center Utrecht, Netherlands

Expertise
Epidemiology and Global Health
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Medicine

Research focus
epidemiology
antibiotic resistance
healthcare-associated infections
prevention
clinical trials
Axel A Brakhage

Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (HKI), Germany

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
infection biology of fungi
microbial secondary metabolism
microbial communication
biotechnology
transcription factors
macrophages
neutrophils

Experimental organism
Aspergillus
Streptomyces
Bryan D Bryson

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States

Expertise
Immunology and Inflammation
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
tuberculosis
computational modeling
infectious disease
microbial pathogenesis
systems biology
Flaminia Catteruccia

Harvard School of Public Health, United States

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
vector biology
malaria
vector-plasmodium interactions
reproductive biology

Experimental organism
A. gambiae
Sara Cherry

University of Pennsylvania, United States

Expertise
Genetics and Genomics
Immunology and Inflammation
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
virology
microbiology
innate immunity
genetics
genomics
emerging pathogens

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
Isaac Chiu

Harvard Medical School, United States

Expertise
Immunology and Inflammation
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Neuroscience

Research focus
neuroimmunology
pain
microglia
infection
bacterial pathogens

Experimental organism
mouse
rat
Christine Clayton

Zentrum fuer Molekulare Biologie der Universitaet Heidelberg (ZMBH), Germany

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Epidemiology and Global Health

Research focus
trypanosomes
mRNA degradation
RNA-binding proteins
Sarah E Cobey

University of Chicago, United States

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Epidemiology and Global Health
Medicine

Research focus
B cells
coevolution
infectious disease dynamics
influenza
mathematical modelling
vaccination
Maureen L Coleman

University of Chicago, United States

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Ecology
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
microbial ecology
bacterial genomics
bacteriophage-host interactions
viral ecology
microbial phototrophy
stress response
Caroline Colijn

Simon Fraser University, Canada

Expertise
Epidemiology and Global Health
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
evolution of pathogens
pathogen ecology
mathematics
epidemiological modelling
Mauricio Comas-Garcia

Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Mexico

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
physical virology
RNA packaging
viral assembly
virus-like-particle
vaccines
RNA viruses
structural virology
biophysics
Vaughn S Cooper

University of Pittsburgh, United States

Expertise
Evolutionary Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
experimental evolution
antimicrobial resistance
biofilms
education
adaptation
cancer

Experimental organism
Pseudomonas
E. coli
Burkholderia
Acinetobacter
Laura Dassama

Stanford University, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
bacterial multidrug resistance
chemoenzymatic syntheses
beta-hemoglobinopathies
Natalia De Miguel

Instituto Tecnológico de Chascomús, Argentina

Expertise
Cell Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
parasite
extracellular vesicles
host-parasite interactions
epigenetics
chromatin
Laura R Delgui

National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Argentina

Expertise
Cell Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
virus-host cell interactions
membranes
molecular biology
cellular biology
structural biology
biophysics
molecular dynamics
Samuel L Díaz-Muñoz

University of California, Davis, United States

Expertise
Evolutionary Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
social evolution
reassortment
experimental evolution
genomics
sex
environmental microbiology
behavior
Marcelo U Ferreira

University of São Paulo, Brazil

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Epidemiology and Global Health

Research focus
infectious diseases
malaria
parasites
epidemiology
population genomics
genomics
control
Evangelos J Giamarellos-Bourboulis

Attikon University Hospital, Greece

Expertise
Immunology and Inflammation
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Genetics and Genomics
Medicine

Research focus
sepsis
hidradenitis suppurativa
pathogenesis of infection
biomarkers
Karine A Gibbs

Harvard University, United States

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
Proteus mirabilis
sociomicrobiology
bacterial genetics
kin discrimination
self/non-self recognition
Thomas Gingeras

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, United States

Expertise
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Computational and Systems Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
genomics
gene expression
regulatory networks
chromosomal modification

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
human
mouse
Gustavo H Goldman

Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Genetics and Genomics
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
filamentous fungi
Aspergillus
secondary metabolites
gene expression
molecular biology
infectious diseases
drug tolerance
Karina A Gomez

Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular (INGEBI-CONICET), Argentina

Expertise
Immunology and Inflammation
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
immunology
parasite
infection
microbiology
Pablo A González

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile

Expertise
Medicine
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
host-pathogen interactions
dendritic cells
T cells
herpesviruses
bacteria
immune evasion
viruses

Experimental organism
mouse
Leslie Goo

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, United States

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Immunology and Inflammation

Research focus
virology
flaviviruses
antibodies
emerging viruses
humoral immunity
Frederik Graw

Heidelberg University, Germany

Expertise
Immunology and Inflammation
Computational and Systems Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
mathematical modelling
theoretical immunology
host-pathogen interactions
viral spread
infection dynamics

Experimental organism
mouse
viruses
Ashleigh S Griffin

University of Oxford, United Kingdom

Expertise
Evolutionary Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
social evolution
behavioural ecology
cooperation
social microbiology
Yogesh K Gupta

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, United States

Expertise
Medicine
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Cancer Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
drug discovery
nucleic acid modifications
cancer epigenetics
structures of viral proteins
host-pathogen interactions
Shozeb Haider

University College London, United Kingdom

Expertise
Medicine
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Computational and Systems Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
X-ray crystallography
molecular dynamics simulations
allostery
structure-based drug design
structural bioinformatics
computational chemistry
nucleic acids
rare diseases
Sophie Helaine

Harvard Medical School, United States

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
host-pathogen interaction
bacterial pathogenesis
persistence
antibiotic persisters
toxin-antitoxin systems

Experimental organism
S. enterica
Prabhat Jha

Saint Michael's Hospital, Canada

Expertise
Epidemiology and Global Health
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Medicine

Research focus
epidemiology
global health
infectious disease and population dynamics
randomized controlled trials
Mark Jit

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and Public Health England, United Kingdom

Expertise
Epidemiology and Global Health
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
vaccines
infectious disease epidemiology
mathematical modelling
health economics
low- and middle-income countries

Experimental organism
human
vaccine-preventable pathogens
human papillomavirus
measles virus
rotavirus
influenza virus
S. pneumoniae
Frank Kirchhoff

Ulm University Medical Center, Germany

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
AIDS
innate immunity
restriction factors
viral evasion

Experimental organism
HIV
SIV
SARS-CoV-2
Urszula Krzych

Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, United States

Expertise
Epidemiology and Global Health
Immunology and Inflammation
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
adoptive immunity
immune memory responses
liver resident T memory cells
Plasmodium liver stage infection
Plasmodium antigens/vaccines
design of malaria vaccines
Luis F Larrondo

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Chromosomes and Gene Expression

Research focus
circadian biology
photobiology
synthetic biology
gene expression
fungal biology
plant pathogenic fungi
filamentous fungi

Experimental organism
S. cerevisiae
N. crassa
Michael Laub

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States

Expertise
Cell Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
bacterial cell cycle
toxin-antitoxin systems
signal transduction
protein evolution
chromosome organisation

Experimental organism
E. coli
C. crescentus
Elena Levashina

Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Germany

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
malaria ecology
mosquito immune system
Anopheles gambiae

Experimental organism
P. falciparum
Petra Anne Levin

Washington University in St. Louis, United States

Expertise
Cell Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
bacterial cytoskeleton
temporal and spatial control of cell division
cell size control
cell cycle dynamics in bacterial systems

Experimental organism
B. subtilis
E. coli
Huihui Li

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, United States

Expertise
Medicine
Cell Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
sickle cell disease
gut microbiota
iron
polycythemia vera
bacteria-induced organ damage

Experimental organism
mouse
Wenhui Li

National Institute of Biological Sciences, China

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
virus infection
hepatitis b/d virus
receptor
antivirals

Experimental organism
human
mouse
viruses
Chang Liu

Johns Hopkins University, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
coronavirus
cryo-EM
viral replication
transcriptional regulation
virus-host interactions
RNA structure and processing
ribonucleoprotein complex
Sebastian Lourido

Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, United States

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Cell Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
calcium signaling
host-pathogen interactions
genetic screening
protein kinases
genomics
quantitative proteomics
Apicomplexan parasites

Experimental organism
T. gondii
P. falciparum
Juan E Ludert

Center for Research and Advanced Studies (CINVESTAV), Mexico

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
arboviruses
virus-cell interactions
virus-host interactions
RNA viruses
virus diagnostics
João T Marques

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil

Expertise
Immunology and Inflammation
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
antiviral immunity
RNA interference
mosquito-borne viruses
nucleic acid sensing
James M McCaw

The University of Melbourne, Australia

Expertise
Epidemiology and Global Health
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Ecology
Immunology and Inflammation

Research focus
mathematical epidemiology
virus dynamics
infectious diseases
mathematical modelling
pandemics
influenza
malaria
COVID-19
Malcolm J McConville

University of Melbourne, Australia

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
protozoan parasites
metabolomics
metabolism
Leishmaniasis
trypanosomatids
glycobiology

Experimental organism
T. gondii
John McCutcheon

Arizona State University, United States

Expertise
Cell Biology
Evolutionary Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
organelles
genome evolution
evolutionary cell biology
insects
bacteria
intracellular bacteria
endosymbiosis
Sara Mitri

University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Expertise
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
microbial ecology and evolution
mathematical modelling
synthetic ecology
interspecies interactions
Babak Momeni

Boston College, United States

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Physics of Living Systems

Research focus
microbial communities
community ecology
mathematical modelling
computational biology
applied microbiology
bioremediation
mycotoxins
nasal microbiota
Thabiso Motaung

University of Pretoria, South Africa

Expertise
Cell Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Plant Biology

Research focus
biofilm formation
extracelular vesicles
antimicrobial resistance
extracellular matrix
plant pathology
fungal biology
host-pathogen interaction
Shaeri Mukherjee

University of California, San Francisco, United States

Expertise
Cell Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
membrane traffic
host-pathogen interactions
endoplasmic reticulum

Experimental organism
L. pneumophila
Phil Newmark

Morgridge Institute for Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
Planarian
regeneration
Schistosoma
germ cells
Marisa Nicolás

Laboratório Nacional de Computação Científica, Brazil

Expertise
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Computational and Systems Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
molecular biology
bioinformatics
genomics
transcriptomics
multi-omics approaches
clinical pathogens
antimicrobial resistance
metabolic regulatory networks
transcriptional regulatory networks
C. Brandon Ogbunugafor

Yale University, United States

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Evolutionary Biology
Epidemiology and Global Health
Physics of Living Systems
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
disease ecology
microbial evolution
population genetics
epidemiology
evolutionary medicine

Experimental organism
E. coli
human
P. falciparum
S. cerevisiae
viruses
David A Paz-Garcia

Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste (CIBNOR), Mexico

Expertise
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Computational and Systems Biology
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Plant Biology

Research focus
marine life
coral reefs
phylogenomics
population genomics
morphometrics
gene expression
statistics
coding
Marianoel Pereira-Gómez

Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, Uruguay

Expertise
Evolutionary Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
viruses
evolution
genetics
mutation rate
mutagenesis
experimental evolution
virology
molecular biology
Owen Pornillos

University of Virginia, United States

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
higher-order assembly
cell-free reconstitution
retrovirus structure
tripartite motif proteins
Paul Rainey

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Germany

Expertise
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Plant Biology

Research focus
adaptive radiation
evolution of individuality
evolutionary genetics
ecological genetics
emergence of infectious diseases
forecasting evolution
Marcio L Rodrigues

Instituto Carlos Chagas – Fiocruz PR, Brazil

Expertise
Cell Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
fungi
cell biology
extracellular vesicles
immunopathogenesis
Isabel Rodriguez-Barraquer

University of California, San Francisco, United States

Expertise
Epidemiology and Global Health
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Medicine

Research focus
dengue
malaria
Zika
vector-borne diseases
serology
modeling

Experimental organism
human
Irene Salinas

University of New Mexico, United States

Expertise
Immunology and Inflammation
Neuroscience
Evolutionary Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
mucosal immunology
neuroimmunology
host-microbe interactions
evolutionary immunology
Joshua T Schiffer

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, United States

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Epidemiology and Global Health
Immunology and Inflammation
Medicine

Research focus
mathematical modelling
herpesviruses
HIV
COVID-19
T cell immunology

Experimental organism
human
viruses
HSV
SARS-CoV-2
Shimon Schuldiner

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
ion-coupled transporters
neurotransporters
multidrug transporters
vesicular transporters
antibiotic resistance
bioenergetics
microbial physiology
membrane proteins
Alex Sigal

Africa Health Research Institute, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Evolutionary Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
SARS-CoV-2
COVID-19
antibody neutralisation
viral evolution
experimental evolution
cell-to-cell viral spread
Olivier Silvie

Sorbonne Université, Inserm, France

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
parasite biology
malaria
host-parasite interactions
vaccines

Experimental organism
P. falciparum
human
mouse
Jungsan Sohn

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Immunology and Inflammation
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
innate immunity
inflammasomes
X-ray crystallography
cryo-EM
biochemistry
enzyme kinetics
Margaret Stanley

University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Expertise
Cancer Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Medicine
Epidemiology and Global Health

Research focus
vaccines
cervix cancer
cervix precancer
keratinocyte biology
human papillomavirus
DNA viruses
vaccine immunology

Experimental organism
human
Shuo Su

Nanjing Agricultural University, China

Expertise
Epidemiology and Global Health
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
evolutionary biology
receptor
protein interactions
epidemics
epidemic modelling
virus evolution and diversity
Alan Talevi

National University of La Plata, Argentina

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Computational and Systems Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
bioinformatics
drug discovery
cheminformatics
pharmacy
Mauro M Teixeira

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil

Expertise
Medicine
Immunology and Inflammation
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
inflammation
mediators of inflammation
pharmacology
anti-viral compounds
arboviral infections
clinical trials
Kenichi Tsuda

Huazhong Agricultural University, China

Expertise
Plant Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Genetics and Genomics
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
plant immunity
phytohormones
pathogen
microbiome
transcriptome

Experimental organism
maize
Arabidopsis
Pseudomonas
xanthomonas
Peter Turnbaugh

University of California, San Francisco, United States

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
metagenomics
human gut microbiome
nutrition
pharmacology
bacteriophages
CRISPR-Cas systems
gnotobiotics
microbial metabolism

Experimental organism
human
mouse
Dario Riccardo Valenzano

Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, Germany

Expertise
Evolutionary Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Immunology and Inflammation
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
biology of aging
microbiome
killifish
neutral evolution
mutation load
comparative genomics
immunosenescence
Frank van de Veerdonk

Radboud University Medical Center, Netherlands

Expertise
Immunology and Inflammation
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Medicine

Research focus
medical mycology
clinical immunology
Russell E Vance

University of California, Berkeley, United States

Expertise
Immunology and Inflammation
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
innate immunity
bacterial pathogenesis
interferon
inflammasomes
pathogen-sensing

Experimental organism
mouse
L. pneumophila
M. tuberculosis
Joseph T Wade

Wadsworth Center, United States

Expertise
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Genetics and Genomics
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
bacterial gene regulation
bacterial CRISPR systems
bacterial regulatory RNA

Experimental organism
E. coli
S. typhimurium
M. tuberculosis
Amy Wesolowski

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, United States

Expertise
Epidemiology and Global Health
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
infectious diseases
mobility
malaria
parasites
measles
Alexander Westermann

Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Germany, Germany

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
Dual RNA-seq
small RNA
bacteroides thetaiotaomicron
ProQ
Blake Wiedenheft

Montana State University, United States

Expertise
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
bacteriophages
genome editing
host-parasite interactions
Frankline Wirsiy

Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Amref Health Africa, Cameroon

Expertise
Epidemiology and Global Health
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
global health security
emerging infectious diseases
immunization practice
Jie Xiao

Johns Hopkins University, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Physics of Living Systems
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
single molecule biophysics
microbiology
cell division
cell wall
gene expression

Experimental organism
E. coli
Dario S Zamboni

Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil

Expertise
Cell Biology
Immunology and Inflammation
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
parasitology
innate immunity
inflammation
inflammasome
intracellular receptors
mouse models of infection
pathogen-host cell interaction
María Mercedes Zambrano

CorpoGen, Colombia

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
environmental microbiology
microbial communities
biodiversity
microbiome
antimicrobial resistance
extreme environments