Member of Yale faculty since 2017.
Research Interests
Research
Molecular interactions between microbial and host cells can profoundly impact human health and disease. My lab uses chemical tools to discover proteins, post-translational modifications, and metabolites that shape host–microbe interactions in the gastrointestinal tract. Our primary goal is to understand how bacterial and host cells adapt to oxidative stress during infection. We use a combination of chemical proteomics, genetics, and infection models to identify proteins that are post-translationally modified by oxidative stress and to determine how protein oxidation affects host–microbe interactions. In addition, we use mass spectrometry-based approaches to identify metabolites and catabolic pathways that shape redox homeostasis at the host–microbe interface. Finally, we are developing new tools for the precise detection and inhibition of pathogenic bacteria within complex microbial communities like the gut microbiota. By bridging the fields of chemistry and microbiology, we strive to develop new approaches that will increase basic understanding of host–microbe interactions and generate new leads for therapeutic targets, activity-based diagnostics, and drug-delivery systems.