We believe microbes are fundamental to animal biology.

To discover new ways that microbes influence animals, we study laboratory-based interactions between bacteria and animals.

We found that microbes have evolved complex mechanisms of stimulating normal animal development.

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LAB NEWS

August 2020 PhD students, Kyle and Amanda, both win prestigious ARCS Scholarships!

August 2020 Amanda's first, first-author publication is in press at Environmental Microbiology! We reveal a hidden complexity of interactions between a single bacterial species, the factors it produces and two species of animal larvae.

July 2020 We discovered that genes encoding a distinct Contractile Injection System is present within a majority of healthy human microbiomes. Our new paper is in press at mSystems! Check it out!

June 2020 Undergraduate, Milagros Esmerode, starts a PhD program at UCSB in the Fall! Go Mimi!

September 2020 Our new review on bacteria-stimulated metamorphosis in Annual Review of Microbiology is in press! 

April 2020 Nick receives a prestigious NSF CAREER Award! Here's the news story.

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September 2019 Check out our new paper in eLife! We discovered the first protein from bacteria that stimulates animal metamorphosis! 

​July 2019 We discovered that bacteria produce tiny syringe-like structures that inject a toxin into animal cells, opening the possibility for using them as novel drug delivery systems. Now in CellReports!

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