Christine Bassis

Birthplace: Madison, WI

Undergraduate Institution: University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill

Graduate School: Scripps Institution of Oceanography - UCSD

Postdoctoral Training: Loyola University Chicago and University of Michigan

About Me: Christine is interested in symbioses between bacteria and animals. As a graduate student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Christine studied natural product producing, uncultivated bacterial symbionts of marine invertebrates with Margo Haygood. As a new postdoc she moved to Loyola University Chicago to work with Karen Visick on the symbiosis between the bacterium Vibrio fischeri and the Hawaiian bobtail squid Euprymna scolopes. She studied biofilm formation in this genetically tractable bacterial symbiont. When she moved to the University of Michigan to work with Vince Young and Gary Huffnagle she had the opportunity to continue pursuing her interests in bacterial symbiosis – now in human hosts. At the University of Michigan she has explored human bacterial communities - from the airways to the gut to the vagina – and their roles in human health. In her current research she is investigating the relationship between health and bacterial community dynamics – both in the gut and the female reproductive tract. She enjoys riding her bike, reading about cooking, traveling, spending time with her family and hopes, one day, to move back to the beach.

Email: cbassis@umich.edu