Here we see a human blood vessel cell that is heavily infected with a dangerous tickborne bacterium called Rickettsia parkeri (shown in magenta). During infection, R. parkeri has a peculiar lifecycle where it cannot live outside of cells and must invade them to grow and divide. Because of this confinement to the internal cell space, R. parkeri and similar pathogens have evolved incredible mechanisms of manipulating our own cells’ functions and processes to help them survive. This image shows the most visually striking part of this lifecycle, where the bacteria actually target a human structural protein called actin (shown in green) to form distinctive actin “tails” that enable R. parkeri to move around the cell and eventually, to spread into other cells.

A major goal of my research is to find host (human) genes that control the outcome of infection with R. parkeri, which could identify new therapeutic opportunities for these pathogens.

This image captures the dynamic motion of a human bacterial pathogen during infection and the interconnectedness of pathogen biology with that of its human host cell.