天美传媒

 
Brenda Anne Wilson is a Professor of microbiology in the School of Molecular & Cellular Biology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She also is the Inaugural Professor of Biomedical and Translational Sciences in the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, an adjunct professor of pathobiology in the College of Veterinary Medicine; and the Sandia Senior Faculty Fellow in the university's Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation. 
Wilson is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and a member of the AAM Selection Committee, and an American Society for Microbiology Distinguished Lecturer.
She was a DAAD graduate exchange Fellow in biochemistry at Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München, Germany. While earning her PhD at Johns Hopkins University, she was an AAUW doctoral fellow and studied antibiotic biosynthesis. She then undertook her NIH postdoctoral fellowship training in microbiology at Harvard Medical School, where she began her studies on bacterial protein toxins. Her first tenured faculty appointment was in biochemistry at Wright State University School of Medicine, Dayton, Ohio.
As inaugural leader of the Host-Microbe Systems Theme of the Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois for 10 years, Wilson brought together faculty and scientists from multiple disciplines across campus, including microbiology, anthropology, animal sciences, engineering, and veterinary pathobiology to forge new areas of microbiome research. She served for 10 years on the executive committee of the Great Lakes Regional Center for Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases. As co-director of the University of Illinois Center for Zoonoses Research, she has promoted the One-Health Initiative and training of DVM students in research through summer training experiences. For nearly 20 years she has served as Biosecurity Leader of the Executive Committee of the University of Illinois Program in Arms Control, Domestic and International Security, where she has engaged events promoting scientific literacy and bridging the gap between scientists and educators, policy makers, government officials, and the public.
Wilson is currently president of the Champaign-Urbana Branch of the American Association for University Women, where she helps organize and convene community outreach events aimed at advancing equity and higher education opportunities for women and girls, particularly in STEM areas. As director for undergraduate education in the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology, she helps oversee the delivery of all academic, advising, and curricular aspects of the BS in MCB, BS in Biochemistry, BS in Neuroscience, and the forthcoming BS in MCB + Data Science undergraduate programs and the MS in MCB graduate programs. As the Sandia Senior Faculty Fellow in the Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation, she fosters, engages, and sustains research collaborations in STEM disciplines, including building workforce pipelines between scientists at the University of Illinois and the U.S. Department of Energy's national labs.
Research interests
Wilson’s research focuses on the host-microbe interface, bacterial pathogenesis and bacterial protein toxins, development of anti-toxin and toxin-based therapeutic biologics, comparative and functional genomic technologies and applications involving microbiomes and their roles in health and disease, climate change impacts on microbiomes, health, and disease transmission, and development of technologies and applications for detection and risk assessment of Dual Use Research of Concern (DURC) objects, publications, and activities. She has published over 150 scientific articles, chapters, and books, including the highly acclaimed textbook Bacterial Pathogenesis: A Molecular Approach (4th Edition, 2019, ASM Press/John Wiley) and the recent Revenge of the Microbes: How Bacterial Resistance is Undermining the Antibiotic Miracle (2nd Edition, 2023, ASM Press/John Wiley).
Education
BA (Biochemistry and German), Barnard College/Columbia University, 1981
Biochemistry Diplomarbeit (Post-baccalaureate Program), Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, Munich, Germany, 1981-1982
M.S./Ph.D. (Chemistry), Johns Hopkins University, 1989
Postdoctoral (Microbiology and Molecular Genetics), Harvard Medical School, 1989-1993
Website

Cari Vanderpool is a professor of microbiology and the associate dean for research in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at the University of Illinois.
She joined the University of Illinois faculty in 2006 after completing her PhD at the University of Minnesota and postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health. Her research focuses on the fundamental biology of bacteria and the viruses that infect them (bacteriophages or phages). Her research group uses tools of biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology, and genomics to investigate bacterial interactions with each other and with their plant and animal hosts. One of the overall goals of her research is to understand how bacteria sense different environmental conditions and respond by changing their gene expression, cellular structure, and behaviors in ways that allow them to succeed in very diverse and sometimes harsh environments. This work is necessary to reveal how bacteria in the complex communities known as microbiomes contribute to human and animal and plant health.  
Phages are the most abundant biological entity on the planet and bacteria must constantly defend themselves against this natural predator. Dr. Vanderpool’s group is studying how phages interact with an array of bacterial species and how these interactions shape bacterial populations in a variety of natural environments, from the human gut to the soil. Bacteria are engaged in an “arms race” with the phages that target them, characterized by bacterial defense and phage counter-defense mechanisms and Dr. Vanderpool’s group is also studying these processes. There is a great deal of interest in harnessing the natural bacterial killing properties of phages for a range of biotechnology applications. Phages show special promise as an alternative to antibiotic therapies, and thus may help solve the looming antibiotic resistance crisis. Dr. Vanderpool’s group is embarking on new applied research directions that may lead to breakthroughs in use of phages as therapies for a range of human diseases.
For more about her research, visit . 

Research Topics
Genetics, Genomics, Metabolic Regulation, Microbial Physiology, Regulation of Gene Expression, RNA Biology, Signal Transduction

Education

BS Microbiology, Purdue University, 1998
PhD Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology, University of Minnesota, 1998-2003
Postdoctoral Fellow, National Cancer Institute, 2003-2006