Professional Philosophy

What will you do with what you know?

This quote from Steven Garber, author of Visions of Vocation, continues to shape my research career. Although conducting research for the acquisition of knowledge is an admirable and enjoyable pursuit, I am motivated by this challenge to consider how my research shapes the clinic and public health.

Career problem

Antibiotic resistance threatens to erode decades of progress in treating bacterial infections. To combat this urgent threat, novel strategies are needed to advancing antibiotic development, steward our current antibiotics, and prevent the development and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Career mission

My career goal is to integrate microbial genomics, clinical epidemiological analyses, and wet lab experimentation to identify divers of the emergence and spread of resistant bacteria in vulnerable populations. Through this research, I hope to inform clinical and public health decision making and interventions.

Career station

I conduct high-impact, collaborative research at the University of Michigan, a leading academic medical center. The University of Michigan has leading clinical collaborators, advanced genomics cores, and innovative experimental collaborators. Coalescing these collaborators will enable clinically-relevant molecular epidemiology research, while enabling investigation of clinical findings in model in vivo and in vitro systems.

Career research questions

  1. What host and bacterial factors drive the emergence sof antibiotic resistance?
  2. What host, bacterial, and population-level factors facilitate the spread of antibiotic-resistant organisms?
  3. How can genomic epidemiology studies be leveraged to strengthen drug discovery, antimicrobial stewardship, and infection prevention?