Research Interest

I am keenly interested in contributing to research centered around understanding microbe-microbe interactions that may exist in chronic wounds, a typical example of clinically relevant polymicrobial infection, and how these interactions may impact disease progression and disease outcome.  I aim to achieve this by combining classical microbiological techniques and multi-omics approaches.

While the polymicrobial nature of chronic wounds has long been known, most existing data have focused on describing the physiology of only a handful of the pathogens found in these infection sites. Moreover, many studies adopt a single infection or pairwise comparison approach when investigating bacterial behavior in these complex infections. 

Although these studies have undeniably advanced our understanding of bacterial behavior in infection environments, key knowledge gaps exist, such as how the multispecies microbes present contribute to the community’s functions, the microbial interactions between these community members, the molecular mechanisms that drive these interactions, and how these ultimately impact disease progression and outcome. 

My research seeks to investigate the interactions between S. aureus, a bacteria that has been identified as a key pathogen in chronic wounds, and Gram-positive anaerobic cocci, a group of anaerobes commonly isolated from clinical samples but are often considered bystanders in chronic wounds. In contributing to this area of science, I hope to elucidate the interactions between S. aureus and F. magna in chronic wounds and the role of synthesized metabolites and spatial structure in mediating these interactions, as these can be targeted for the development of novel treatment strategies.

Additionally, I seek to build a representative polymicrobial infection model of chronic wounds that will capture in situ microbial physiology. This model will serve as a tool that can be used to investigate bacteria interactions and mechanisms of survival and persistence in complex polymicrobial infections.

 

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