Haydel is an infectious disease microbiologist investigating new antibiotics to fight resistant infections, new technologies to diagnose infections in less than 2 hours, and how bacteria cause disease in humans.

Wei Kong and team utilizes self-destructing Salmonella and gut-beneficial bacteria to deliver protective antigens, DNA vaccines, therapeutics against cancers and neurological disorders.

Vermaas and his team conduct basic and applied research on cyanobacteria, a group of photosynthetic microbes, using these organisms as a chassis to produce useful compounds (biofuels, green chemicals) from sunlight and CO2.

Rajeev Misra is a microbial geneticist who studies how proteins, synthesized in the cytoplasm, are targeted to the bacterial outer membrane. He also examines the mechanisms of drug resistance.

Yixin Shi’s research is focused on molecular biology, bacteriology and biochemistry. Shi analyzes the virulent elements necessary for bacterial survival in host environments.

Dr. Nickerson studies the effects of biomechanical forces on microbial and human cells on Earth and in space, how this response is related to normal homeostasis or disease, and translation to biomedical/biotech applications.

Birge is a bacterial geneticist whose research interests were the genetics of Escherichia coli and its viruses. He is no longer active in that field but penned the textbook Bacterial and Bacteriophage Genetics.

Bean applies bioanalytical chemistry methods to characterize microbial, human, animal, plant, and soil metabolomes to identify biomarkers of health and disease.