Department: Medical Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests:

My group’s research related to microbiota is on how co-morbidities affect the host’s ability to shape the composition of its commensal microbiota, and how these changes in turn affect resistance to colonization with pathogens.

Research Summary:

The Tsolis lab’s research is focused on the interplay between bacterial pathogens, the gut microbiota and innate immunity. Areas of study include molecular mechanisms by which these pathogens subvert killing mechanisms of phagocytes such as macrophages and neutrophils. We are interested in leveraging the knowledge gained from these fundamental studies for development of new therapeutic drugs. The lab is particularly interested in how phagocytes detect perturbation of cellular signaling pathways during infection as a mechanism for induction of host responses, and how immune cell metabolism and pathogen metabolism intersect to determine the outcome of an infection. A further area of research is on how the gut microbiota provides resistance to colonization with intestinal pathogens.