Faculty
Pathogens & Immunity
Fikri Avci
Assistant Professor
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Mechanisms of immune activation by carbohydrate antigens; design and development
of knowledge-based vaccines and therapeutics against pathogens and cancers.
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Maor Bar-Peled
Associate Professor
Plant Biology
Molecular cell biology of the wall, Biofuel and BioEnergy, Golgi as model for System biology, Plant Immunity.
Melinda Brindley
Assistant Professor
Infectious Diseases
Arenavirus glycoprotein structure and function; virus entry and membrane fusion; emerging virus-host interactions.
Don Champagne
Associate Professor
Entomology
Role of arthropod salivary factors in pathogen transmission and immune responses in their vertebrate hosts.
Harry Dickerson
Professor
Infectious Diseases
Comparative Immunology; molecular parasitology.
Roberto Docampo
Professor
Cellular Biology
Cellular and molecular biology of acidocalcisomes; the role of polyphosphate in trypanosomatids.
Ronald D. Etheridge
Assistant Professor
Cellular Biology
Toxoplasma’s Strategies to Manipulate Host Immunity
Vanessa Ezenwa
Associate Professor
Infectious Diseases
Environmental Genomics; Crocodilians; Reptilian Genomics; Molecular Ecology.
Jonathan Frye
Research Microbiologist
Microbiology
We investigate the development and spread of antimicrobial resistant Salmonella,
which is the most prevalent foodborne bacterial illness in the U.S.
Travis Glenn
Associate Professor
Bioinformatics; Toxciology
Environmental Genomics; Crocodilians; Reptilian Genomics; Molecular Ecology.
Andreas Handel
Assistant Professor
Bioinformatics
My research focuses on mathematical and computational modeling of within-host
and between-host infectious disease dynamics.
Donald Harn
Professor and GRA Distinguished Investigator
Infectious Diseases
Mechanistic analysis of parasite induced immune suppression. Translational research
on immuno-modulation pertaining to inflammation based diseases.
Vaccine development and trials.
Eric T. Harvill
Professor
Infectious Diseases
Interactions between microbial pathogens and host immunity in the
mouse model using bacteria that naturally infect mice and
closely related strains that are important human pathogens.
Biao He
Professor and GRA Distinguished Investigator
Infectious Diseases
Paramyxovirus-host interactions, vaccine development, emerging paramyxovirus and onocylytic virus.
Mary Hondalus
Associate Professor
Infectious Diseases
Mechanisms of bacterial virulence and survival in the host; host-pathogen interactions;
vaccine development.
Tim Hoover
Professor
Microbiology
Gene regulation in bacteria; regulation of flagellar biogenesis; control of RpoN-dependent transcription in bacteria.
Ray Kaplan
Professor
Infectious Diseases
Biology, molecular mechanisms, and population genetics of anthelmintic resistance in
parasitic nematodes
Anna Karls
Associate Professor
Microbiology
Mechanisms for microbial adaptation and virulence; specialized
DNA recombination in Neisseria meningitidis & N. gonorrhoeae;
sigma54 regulon in Salmonella Typhimurium.
Kim Klonowski
Assistant Professor
Cellular Biology
Development and regulation of immunological memory.
Eric Lafontaine
Associate Professor
Infectious Diseases
Bacterial pathogenesis; role of adhesins in virulence; vaccine development.
Nancy Manley
Distinguished Research Professor
Genetics
Evolution, organogenesis, and function of the thymus and parathyroids.
Kojo Mensa-Wilmot
Professor
Cellular Biology
Cell Signaling, Organelle Biogenesis, and Drug Discovery in Trypanosomes.
Cory Momany
Associate Professor
Pharmaceutical & Biomedical Sciences
X-ray crystallography of macromolecules, prokaryotic transcriptional regulators.
Michelle Momany
Professor
Plant Biology
Cellular and molecular biology of polar growth in fungi.
Andy Moorhead
Assistant Research Scientist
Infectious Diseases
Establishment of the parasite/host niche by filarial worms, specifically Brugia malayi, one of the causative agents of lymphatic filariasis.
Silvia Moreno
Professor
Cellular Biology
Metabolism and drug development against protozoan parasites.
Calcium signaling and storage in Toxoplasma gondii.
Jarrod J. Mousa
Assistant Professor
Infectious Diseases
Human antibody-mediated immunity to inform next-generation
vaccine development; focus on immunity to major viral, bacterial,
and fungal human pathogens using multidisciplinary approaches in
immunology, structural biology,and biochemistry to study
antibody-antigen interactions at the molecular level.
Vasant Muralidharan
Assistant Professor
Cellular Biology
Molecular and cellular biology of the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum.
Courtney Murdock
Assistant Professor
Infectious Diseases
We use ecological and evolutionary theory to study mosquito-parasite interactions,
ecological drivers of transmission, and how environmental change affects transmission.
Karen Norris
Professor
Infectious Diseases
Vaccine dev for prevention of PCP and COPD, RSV infection, COPD; Immune Activation
and Aging, PAH; Immune-mediated mechanisms of pathogenesis, Type 2 diabetes and
metabolic syndrome, therapeutic testing; chronic immune activation/inflammation.
Andrew Park
Assistant Professor
Infectious Diseases
Transient evolution of pathogens. Evolutionary processes involved in cross-species transmission. Evolutionary constraints in viral epidemiology.
Scott Pegan
Associate Professor
Pharmaceutical & Biomedical Sciences
Antibiotic & antiviral drug discovery, assay development, enzymology,
and structural biology, regulation of innate immune responses.
David Peterson
Associate Professor
Infectious Diseases
Characterization of adhesion proteins which mediate host-parasite interactions in Plasmodium falciparum.
Fred Quinn
Professor
Infectious Diseases
Tuberculosis pathogenesis; host-pathogen interactions.
Ted Ross
Professor
Infectious Diseases
Dr. Ross explores new vaccine technologies for seasonal and pandemic influenza
as well as West Nile Virus, Dengue Chikungunya, Ebola, and HIV.
Robert Sabatini
Professor
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Molecular and biochemical parasitology: DNA modification, homologous recombination
and the regulation of antigenic variation in Trypanosoma brucei.
Liliana Salvador
Assistant Professor
Infectious Diseases; Bioinformatics
Computational biology; ecology and evolution of infectious diseases;
phylodynamics; animal movement.
Susan Sanchez
Professor
Infectious Diseases
Veterinary diagnostics; emerging clinical problems; antibiotic resistance;
epidemiology of diseases with special emphasis in zoonoses.
Vincent Starai
Associate Professor
Infectious Diseases; Microbiology
Bacterial modulation of eukaryotic membrane dynamics for intracellular survival;
SNARE-dependent membrane fusion biochemistry.
Mike Strand
Distinguished Research Professor
Entomology
Molecular and evolutionary biology of insect parasites; virology, immunology, symbiont evolution, reproduction.
Eva-Maria Strauch
Assistant Professor
Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences
Protein design and engineering, design of anti-virals and immunogens,
protein chemistry and re-purposing of viral surface proteins,
computational biology
Rick Tarleton
Professor
Cellular Biology
Mechanisms of immunity and disease in Trypanosoma cruzi infection (Chagas Disease); Basic and applied biology of T. cruzi.
Michael Terns
Distinguished Research Professor
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Genetics; Microbiology
We study CRISPR-Cas immune systems that protect prokaryotes from viruses and provide
powerful research tools for important biotechnology and biomedical applications.
S. Mark Tompkins
Assistant Professor
Infectious Diseases; Toxciology
Transmission and pathogenicity of zoonotic influenza virus infection and development
of vaccination and the prevention and treatment of viral infections.
M. Stephen Trent
Distinguished Professor
Infectious Diseases
Characterizing the assembly of bacterial surface structures, Development of vaccines for viral
and bacterial pathogens, Systems approaches to understanding microbial diseases
Ralph A. Tripp
Professor and Georgia Research Alliance Chair in Vaccine and Therapeutic Studies
Infectious Diseases; Toxciology
Disease intervention strategies for important human pathogens and emerging infectious diseases of zoonotic origin;
mechanisms of immunity; virus-host interface.
Kevin Vogel
Assistant Professor
Entomology
Integrating physiology, genomics, evolution, and microbial symbiosis to understand the biology of insect vectors of disease.
Wendy Watford
Assistant Professor
Infectious Diseases
Regulation of host defense and tolerance by Stat transcription factors.
Adrian Wolstenholme
Professor
Infectious Diseases
Molecular helminthology: in particular the interactions of
anthelmintic drugs with ion channels in the nervous systems
of parasitic helminths, and the molecular basis of drug resistance.