Professors

Dr Li is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (AAS), the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS), and the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM). He is also recognized as a Clarivate® Highly Cited Researcher in pharmacology and toxicology (2015-2017, 2022). His research focuses on antimicrobial chemotherapy (including phage pharmacology) and drug discovery, particularly in pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, toxicodynamics, microbiology, systems pharmacology, and toxicity. Dr Li has 453 publications (including 10 book chapters) with 31,913 citations and an h-index of 85. He has delivered more than 110 invited conference talks, seminars and public lectures at universities, institutes, the Food and Drug Administration, and pharmaceutical companies internationally. His research led to the first scientifically-based dosing recommendations for colistin, which have been employed by the European Medicines Agency and improved clinical practice worldwide. Dr Li’s novel antibiotic drug QPX9003 has been developed from concept in his laboratory to clinical trials and licensed to Qpex Biopharma and Brii Biosciences. Since 2004 Dr Li has been awarded 63 grants (including 13 National Institutes of Health [NIH] R01) from various funding agencies and pharmaceutical companies. He is President of the International Society of Anti-Infective Pharmacology (2022-2024), Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents and the first book on polymyxins (Springer Nature, 2019; >68,000 downloads), and an invited reviewer for approximately 200 international journals.

(Updated July 18, 2024)

Dr Laub’s research currently focuses on phage-bacteria interactions with a particular emphasis on the antiphage defense mechanisms used by bacteria to defend themselves against phages and the counterdefense mechanisms employed by phages. We use a variety of genetic and computational tools to identify new antiphage defense systems in E. coli, B. subtilis, and S. aureus. The mechanistic basis of immunity provided by individual systems is pursued using a combination of genetics, biochemistry, cell biology, and structural approaches. The lab also examines the tempo, modes, and patterns of genome evolution in bacteria and phages that stems from their constant battle with each other.

(Updated July 18, 2024)

Dr Koskella is an Associate Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California Berkeley. Her work explores the importance of the bacteria and viruses making up the microbiome in shaping plant health, ecology, and evolution. She received her BA from the University of Virginia in 2001 and her PhD from Indiana University in 2018, and subsequently held postdoctoral and independent research fellowships in both the United States (funded by the National Science Foundation) and United Kingdom (funded by the Natural Environmental Research Council) at Oxford University and the University of Exeter. Her work combines laboratory experimental evolution with studies of natural diversity to determine how bacteriophage viruses shape bacterial evolution, microbiome diversity, and disease. She works on the phyllosphere (above ground tissues) of both long-lived trees and short-lived, agriculturally relevant systems to better predict microbiome complexity and stability and to understand the role that microbiomes play in plant health and agricultural sustainability.

(Updated July 18, 2024)

Prof Iredell is an infectious diseases physician and clinical microbiologist specializing in critical infections and transmission of antibiotic resistance. He led an National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) in Critical Infectious Diseases at the Westmead Millennium Institute for Medical Research from 2011, is a Fellow of the Australian Society for Microbiology (ASM), and was ASM President from 2014-2016. He developed Australia’s first Short Course in Critical Infection for clinicians who manage infection in critically ill patients. Professor Iredell has a strong interest in antimicrobial stewardship and works to inform policy on antibiotic use in the hospital environment. He has served on the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) Multi Resistant Gram-negative Taskforce and on the Gene Technology Technical Advisory Committee of the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator, and he leads the national Gram-Negative surveillance outcomes program of the Australian Group for Antimicrobial Resistance (AGAR). He has full professional membership of the Australia and New Zealand Intensive Care Society, is a Foundation Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia Faculty of Science.

(Updated July 18, 2024)

Dr Fowler is the Florence McAlister Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center in the Departments of Medicine and Molecular Genetics & Microbiology. He has over 2 decades of continuous support as a principle investigator (PI) from the National Institutes of Health for clinical and translational research in Staphylococcus aureus and other antibiotic resistant bacterial infections. Dr Fowler created the S. aureus Bacteremia Group, cofounded the International Collaboration on Endocarditis, and has been the Contact PI of the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group since its inception in 2013. He has over 350 peer-reviewed publications with more than 33,000 citations.

(Updated July 18, 2024)

Dr Fiore has been a Senior Regulatory Reviewer and Microbiologist in vaccines and live biotherapeutic products (LBPs) at the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) since 2007. She has extensive regulatory and scientific experience in human vaccines and LBPs. In July 2024, Dr Fiore was promoted to Product Jurisdiction General Health Administrator in the Center Director’s Office in CBER where she continues to focus on regulation of vaccines, LBPs, and other products regulated by CBER. Dr Fiore is active in several agency-, federal government-, and worldwide working groups regarding regulation of CBER products and frequently interfaces with external stakeholders on behalf of CBER. Prior to joining the FDA, Dr Fiore was a Senior Scientist at the Office of Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) in the Department of Health and Human Service (DHHS). She was a Senior Scientist in Fermentation and Purification Vaccine Development at Nabi Biopharmaceuticals. Dr Fiore received her PhD from the School of Medicine, University of Maryland Baltimore in vaccine development. She received a BS Biology and a BA Anthropology from Tulane University prior to entering graduate school.

(Updated July 18, 2024)

Dr Bondy-Denomy is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). Prior to coming to UCSF, Dr Bondy-Denomy was a PhD student with Alan Davidson at the University of Toronto and received his undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of Waterloo. His lab is focused on studying the interactions between bacteriophages and the defense systems encoded by host bacteria, specifically focused on the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Historically, the lab has studied clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas systems and their inhibitors, anti-CRISPR proteins. More recent work has broadened that interest to include unique mechanisms of CRISPR-Cas evasion, such as “phage nucleus” compartments. The lab has also begun to characterize the immunity and anti-immunity mechanisms of Gabija, cyclic-oligonucleotide-based anti-phage signaling system (CBASS), Thoeris, Shango, and Jumbo phage killer defenses. Work in the Bondy-Denomy lab has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Searle Scholars Program, the Vallee Foundation, and the Innovative Genomics Institute. Dr Bondy-Denomy serves as a reviewer for the NIH and other granting agencies and for many journals. He is also the cofounder of Acrigen Biosciences, a gene editing company using anti-CRISPR proteins, and on the scientific advisory board of SNIPR Biome, Leapfrog Bio, and Excision Biotherapeutics.

(Updated July 18, 2024)

Dr Bollyky (pronounced “boy-key”) is a Professor of Immunology/Microbiology and an Infectious Disease physician at Stanford University.

Dr Bollyky is originally from Stanford, Connecticut. He received his DPhil at the University of Oxford, and his MD at Harvard Medical School. He completed his residency training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and his Fellowship Training in Infectious Diseases at the University of Washington. Paul joined the Stanford University Medical School faculty in 2013. He is currently Associate Division Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Co-Director of the Stanford Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program.

At Stanford, his lab studies bacteriophages and bacterial infections. His team is interested in understanding how phages in the human body contribute to health and disease and in using bacteriophages to treat chronic skin and lung infections.

(Updated July 18, 2024)

Dr Hatfull is Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. He completed his undergraduate studies in Biological Sciences at Westfield College, University of London (1975-1978), and graduate studies in Molecular Biology at the University of Edinburgh (1978-1981). Following postdoctoral research at Yale University with Dr Nigel Grindley (1981-1983, 1984-1988) and with Bart Barrell and Fred Sanger at MRC Cambridge (1983-1984), he joined the University of Pittsburgh in 1988.

Dr Hatfull's research interests include the molecular genetics of the mycobacteria and their bacteriophages, with particular interests in viral diversity and evolution, genetic systems for tuberculosis, and the mechanisms of site-specific recombination. He also explores ways to integrate research priorities with science education and helps to lead the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Inc (HHMI)-supported Phare Hunters Integrating Research and Education (PHIRE) and Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science (SEA-PHAGES) programs.

(Updated July 18, 2024)