Vanessa Sperandio
Credentials: Medical Microbiology and Immunology Department
Position title: Chemical signaling between bacteria and host
Email: vsperandio@wisc.edu
Phone: 608-265-4480
Address:
3205 Microbial Sciences Building
1550 Linden Dr.
Madison, WI 53706
LAB WEBSITE:
FOCUS GROUPS:
Membrane Biology & Protein Trafficking, Molecular & Genome Biology of Microbes, Transcriptional Mechanisms
RESEARCH DESCRIPTION:
My research investigates chemical, stress and nutritional signaling at the interface amongst the mammalian host, beneficial microbiota and invading bacterial pathogens. The main tenant of research in my laboratory is the study of how bacterial cells sense several mammalian neurotransmitters leading to rewiring and reprogramming of bacterial transcription towards host and niche adaptation. We have also identified several bacterial receptors to mammalian neurotransmitters, and reported that invading pathogens hijack these inter-kingdom signaling systems to promote virulence expression. She also translated these basic science concepts into strategies to develop novel approaches to anti-microbial therapy. More recently we have been working in the gut-brain-axis space to investigate how changes in the intestinal microbiota, modifies the metabolic landscape in the gut and the brain impacting addiction behaviors.
ALSO A TRAINER IN THE FOLLOWING PROGRAMS:
Microbiology Doctoral Training Program