Our research is focused on the evolutionary and functional genetics of insect-pathogen interactions, emphasizing such questions as why individuals vary in susceptibility or resistance to infection, how natural selection operates on host immune systems, and how pathogen behavior determines infection outcome. In our group, we think of host and pathogen as interacting components of a single system that incorporates the full physiology of both players, shaped by the abiotic environment. We envision the immune system as embedded in the overall physiological context of the host and we recognize that genetic determination of variation in resistance may lie in genes outside of the canonical immune system. This logic leads directly to the evolution and mechanism of life history constraints. Importantly, the host is itself the environment in which an infecting pathogen lives. Differences in host physiological and immunological state alter microbial physiology and behavior, and therefore the ultimate outcome of infection.
We primarily study Gram-negative bacterial infection in Drosophila melanogaster. This gives us an extraordinarily powerful experimental model for deconstructing the host-pathogen system from genetic, genomic, and immunological perspectives. Read more at our Research Projects page and download our scientific Publications.