Faculty

Hannah Savage, Ph.D.

  • Assistant Professor
  • Vet Med: Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology
Research Interests: The Savage lab studies interactions between pathogens, the microbiota, and host. In particular, I currently focus on how the microbiota promotes a heathy colonocyte immunometabolism and how this interaction is altered during disease, putting the host at risk of infection with pathogens and pathobionts. My overall research goal is to understand the basis behind these host-microbiota interactions during health so that host health can be supported with therapeutics during microbial disruption to prevent a loss of colonization resistance.

Simon Anthony, Ph.D.

  • Associate Professor
  • VET MED: Pathology, Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Dr. Anthony's research focuses on zoonotic and emerging infectious diseases, and specifically on the discovery, ecology, and evolution of viruses. He is interested in the factors that increase the risk of disease emergence in new hosts, including host or viral traits, and in the eco-evolutionary mechanisms that shape patterns of variation across scales.

Sebastian Winter, Ph.D.

  • Associate Professor
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Internal Medicine
Research Interests: Host-microbe interactions, enteric pathogens, microbial and host metabolism, role of microbiome in inflammatory bowel disease, role of microbiome in the context of colorectal cancer

Luxin Wang, Ph.D.

  • Associate Professor
  • Food Science and Technology
Research Interests: Ecology of foodborne pathogens, Impact of product shelf life on food safety, antibiotic-resistant genes and pathogens in food production chain

Karen Shapiro, D.V.M., M.P.V.M., Ph.D.

  • Associate Professor
  • Associate Agronomist
  • VET MED: Pathology, Microbiology & Immunology
  • Center for Comparative Medicine
Research Interests: Dr. Shapiro's research interests include transport and fate of zoonotic pathogens in watershed and coastal ecosystems; effects of landscape change and climate variability on disease transmission; impacts of water scarcity and impaired quality on human and animal population health, and food safety. Topics of research projects currently span zoonotic infectious disease; waterborne infectious disease; food safety; wildlife population health; human public health and epidemiology.

Richard V. Pereira, D.V.M., Ph.D.

  • Associate Professor of Clinical Livestock Herd Health
  • Associate Agronomist
  • VET MED: Population Health and Reproduction
Research Interests: Antimicrobial resistance in cattle, with a focus on enteric and zoonotic pathogens, the microbiota, and applied management practices to improve stewardship of antimicrobial drug use

Ben Montpetit, Ph.D.

  • Associate Professor (Yeast Biology)
  • Viticulture and Enology
  • Food Science and Technology
Research Interests: Nuclear RNA processing and export is an essential task in all eukaryotes, but despite the vital significance of this process, many basic fundamental questions remain. These include: How does an RNA transit through a nuclear pore complex? How is RNA export altered in response to stress or viral infection? How do mutations in RNA export machinery contribute to disease? The Montpetit Lab is studying these cell biology questions with the goal of describing how components of nuclear pore complexes (NPC) direct and regulate RNA export at a cellular, molecular, and atomic level. Ultimately, this will allow us to better understand the interplay between nuclear RNA export, gene expression, and disease.