My team primarily studies the biology and pathogenesis of Shigella flexneri, a gram-negative intracellular bacterial pathogen that causes dysentery in humans. It is estimated that Shigella spp. cause approx. 1 million deaths in the world every year. Symptoms of Shigellosis include fever, stomach cramps and bloody diarrhea. Our research focuses on bacterial proteins that cause this disease, mechanisms of virulence gene expression and the environmental cues encountered in the human host that trigger Shigella virulence gene expression.