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Nathan Weyand

Nathan Weyand, portrait
Associate Professor & Director of Molecular & Cellular Biology
Life Science Building 109

Education

Ph.D., University of Utah

Research Interests

  • Lab: Life Science Building 240

Many bacteria can persist in the body without eliciting disease symptoms. One bacterial pathogen capable of high levels of asymptomatic carriage in humans is Neisseria gonorrhoeae. N. gonorrhoeae recruits human proteins on the surface of infected cells to the site bacterial adhesion. I am working to understand the functional consequences of protein recruitment. For example, do recruited proteins protect N. gonorrhoeae from innate immune defenses like the complement cascade that can bind and kill this important human pathogen. A second area of my research is the development of animal models that mimic aspects of Neisseria-host interactions that have been refractory to in vivo experimentation including colonization, transmission and the spread of antimicrobial resistance.

Representative Publications

Courses Taught

  • BIOS 3210: General Microbiology
  • BIOS 4270: Mechanisms of Gene Regulation