Dr. Lauren Palmer
Assistant Professor
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Contact
Room: E-804 MSB
email: [email protected]
Phone: (312) 413-0067
Rotation Projects
Antibiotic resistant bacteria are a significant threat to human health. Our lab is interested in how nutrition affects the host-pathogen interface during infection by antibiotic resistant bacteria. The main bacterial infection we focus on is pneumonia caused by Acinetobacter baumannii. The World Health Organization named A. baumannii as the top priority pathogen for developing new antimicrobials. Understanding how nutrition affects A. baumannii infections will allow us to develop new strategies to fight infection including by (1) altering host nutrition to increase immunity to infection, (2) prevent bacteria from accessing the nutrients from the host that they need to thrive, and (3) understanding the role of environmental stress in evolving antibiotic resistance. In order to address these questions, our lab uses a combination of approaches including bacterial genetics and physiology, innate immunity,and nutrient manipulation.