Our laboratory focuses on understanding how nutrients and stresses affect the host-pathogen interface. In order to colonize the host and cause infections, bacteria have evolved to acquire nutrients from their infected host. The nutritional status of the host and microbiota also impacts resistance to colonization and infection. Our lab works to understand how nutrients and energy determine how the emerging multidrug resistant pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii has evolved multidrug resistance and to colonize and infect the host. We are in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Illinois Chicago.