My laboratory investigates mechanisms of bacterial growth, division, cellular organization, and adaptation primarily using the tools of cell biology, biochemistry, and genetics. We leverage two alphaproteobacterial model species with distinct lifestyles to probe conserved and adaptive mechanisms underlying fundamental processes in bacterial cell biology: the free-living oligotroph Caulobacter crescentus and the obligate intracellular, tick-borne pathogen Rickettsia parkeri. Our findings may ultimately inform discovery of new antibiotic targets and resistance mechanisms.
