Stephanie Thiede

BWF PUP program: University of Michigan "Integrated training in Microbial Systems (ITiMS)"

Email: thiede@umich.edu

Phone: (812)870-7610 (c)

Research Interests: Integrating microbial genomic and clinical meta-data to study host-pathogen interactions underlying methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections.

Current Projects: In addition to causing invasive infection, MRSA can asymptomatically colonize its host for extended periods. While it is assumed that colonization precedes infection, the host and bacterial factors that mediate this transition from colonization to bloodstream infection are largely unknown but include one, or likely a combination, of the following processes: (1) changes in host status which broadly increase susceptibility to infection, (2) changes in host status which increase susceptibility to specific strains of MRSA or (3) evolution of MRSA during colonization that increases pathogenic potential. I use experimental, bioinformatics, and epidemiological approaches to understand the transition from colonization to infection.

System of Study: