Description:

Speaker - Francis Alonzo, III, PhD

Associate Professor, Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Illinois at Chicago

Host/ Chair, Bacteriology Search Committee: Nicholas Cianciotto, PhD

Topic

Microbial pathogens must adapt to the host nutritional and immune environment to promote infection. This seminar will center on bacterial fatty acid synthesis and uptake by the gram-positive bacterium Staphylococcus aureus.  I will highlight the relevance of cell envelope lipid composition to S. aureus infection dynamics and innate immune cell recognition and will explore the host lipid repertoire as a nutrient that impacts bacterial survival during infection.