Dr. Shaun Brinsmade, assistant professor, Department of Biology, Georgetown University, will present the seminar “Integrating metabolism and virulence in Staphylococcus aureus.”

Dr. Brinsmade uses Staphylococcus aureus—the leading cause of skin and soft tissue infections, the leading cause of endocarditis, and the most frequent hospital-acquired infection—to understand the mechanistic basis for the commensal-to-pathogen switch (a major unknown in infectious disease). Numerous connections between bacterial physiology and pathogenesis have been revealed over the last several years, and as a result, the field is experiencing a renaissance, with particular interest in how pathogens make a “metabolic living” in their hosts.