MIC Faculty

B.V.Sc. ~ School of Veterinary Science, University of Bristol, United Kingdom, 1993
Ph.D. ~ College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, United States, 1998
Postdoctoral Fellow ~ Department of Pathology, University of California San Francisco, United States, 1998-2004

Current Research Interests:
• Elucidation of host factors that modulate schistosome blood fluke development
• Initiation of innate immune responses by schistosomes and other helminths
• Immune evasion by schistosomes and other helminths
• Role of helminth proteases in immune responses to helminths
• Elucidation of helminth signaling pathways that transduce host signals
• Exploitation of helminth protein kinases as novel drug targets
• Mucosal immune responses to Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli

2002 B.S., Microbiology, B.S., Medical Technology, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT
2007 Ph.D., Biomedical Sciences-Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN

Dr. Kristi L. Frank is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) in Bethesda, MD. A native of Great Falls, MT, she earned her Bachelor of Science degrees in Microbiology and Medical Technology from The University of Montana in Missoula, MT, in 2002. Dr. Frank attended Mayo Graduate School, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, in Rochester, MN, where she earned her Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences-Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2007. She carried out her dissertation research on Staphylococcus lugdunesis biofilm formation in the laboratory of Dr. Robin Patel. Dr. Frank completed her postdoctoral research in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, MN, where she worked with Drs. Gary Dunny and Patrick Schlievert. She joined the faculty at USU in January 2016.

Dr. Frank's lab studies relationships between bacterial pathogens and their hosts in biofilm-associated infections. Biofilms are organized communities of microbes attached to a surface, or to each other, and are encased in a self-produced extracellular matrix. Biofilm growth provides protection from adverse environmental conditions, enables evasion of the host immune defenses, and confers resistance to remarkably high concentrations of antimicrobial agents. Pathogenic bacteria can form biofilms on surfaces throughout a host and on virtually any implantable medical device. Biofilm infections pose a significant challenge to human health because of their chronic nature and the difficulty associated with treating them.

The Frank Lab's current efforts focus on Enterococcus faecalis, a Gram-positive bacterium that is both a human commensal and an opportunistic pathogen. Enterococci are exceptionally robust, recalcitrant to many classes of antimicrobial agents, and highly proficient at acquiring virulence factors via horizontal gene transfer. These characteristics have enabled E. faecalis and other enterococci to emerge as leading causes of healthcare-associated infections. In immunosuppressed patients, E. faecalis can cause a myriad of infections with biofilm etiology, including endocarditis, surgical site infections, and catheter-associated urinary tract infections. The Frank Lab pairs animal models of biofilm formation with genetic, molecular, and biochemical approaches to (1) define sensing pathways and regulatory circuits that are involved in triggering transcriptional and stress responses in the host environment, (2) identify biofilm-associated virulence factors in E. faecalis and determine how they affect interactions between the bacterium and its host, (3) test new methods to remove biofilms and prevent their formation, and (4) pursue the mechanisms by which E. faecalis colonizes endovascular tissues as part of a broader interest in understanding how biofilm-forming bacteria may affect human cardiovascular health.

B.S. Chemistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan (05/1975)
Ph. D. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT, USA (05/1983)
Post-doctoral Fellow, Laboratory of Molecular Virology, NCI, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA (09/1987)

The work in my lab revolves around human viruses, with a special emphasis on human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1), and with occasional forays into other viruses such as HIV and KSHV. We seek a mechanistic understanding of how viral regulatory proteins hijack cellular mediators of mRNA transcription, cell cycle control, and signal transduction to effect viral replication and pathogenesis, especially, oncogenesis. My interest in cancer viruses and human retroviruses developed initially in the early 1980s in the Laboratory of Molecular Virology (LMV) at the NIH where I was a post-doctoral fellow under the direction of Dr. George Khoury. Our major focus at that time was to understand how transcriptional enhancer elements drive eukaryotic mRNA synthesis by studying the HTLV-1 trans-activator, Tax, and its interaction with the cellular transcription machinery. After leaving LMV for the academia, I have been continuously funded by grants from the NIH and other funding agencies (AmFAR, VA, and DoD). We (and others) have since elucidated the mechanism by which Tax activates viral transcription and contributed to current understanding of how HTLV-1 infects, replicates and causes diseases. Due to the global nature of HTLV-1 infection, we frequently collaborate with colleagues in continental US, Asia (Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong), Europe (France, UK, Germany, Italy, etc.), Africa (Uganda), and South America (Brazil). Together with our domestic and international partners, we seek fundamental understanding of HTLV-1 replication, persistence, and pathogenesis, and strive to translate basic science findings into preventive measures and therapeutic approaches for HTLV-1-associated diseases, especially adult T cell leukemia (ATL). Our current efforts concentrate on (1) elucidating the mechanisms that underlie the genomic instability of ATL cells; (2) understanding how NF-kB hyperactivation drives the induction of cellular senescence; (3) identifying the genetic alterations in ATL cells that facilitate the clonal expansion of HTLV-1-infected T cells based on whole genome sequence information; and (4) uncovering the mechanisms that regulate HTLV-1 latency and reactivation.

B.A. Medical Technology, Indiana State University (1979)
Ph.D. Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA (1983)
Post-doctoral Fellow, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (1991-1993)

2012, Ph.D., Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
2008, M.S., Biology, The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA
2003, B.S., Biology, The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA

Dr. George Liechti is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, MD. He obtained his Bachelor of Sciences from The College of William and Mary in 2003 and his Masters of Science in 2008. Dr. Liechti earned his Ph.D. in Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology in 2012 from the University of Virginia. He conducted his postdoctoral studies at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences from 2012-16 as a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Fellow, and subsequently joined the Department as an Assistant Professor in 2016. Current studies in Dr. Liechti’s laboratory focus on the molecular genetics of bacterial pathogenesis, specifically as it relates to human-adapted microbes. Pathogenic Chlamydia, Borrelia, and Helicobacter species are currently under investigation, specifically the physiological mechanisms that confer persistence to these microbes, allowing them to evade clearance by the host and as well as killing by antibiotic treatment. Dr. Liechti is a contributing member of both the American Society for Microbiology and the Chlamydial Basic Research Society, and is the current faculty advisor to the USUHS Postdoctoral Association.

1997: Ph.D., Immunology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA
1994: M.S., Animal Science, University of California Davis, Davis, CA
1986: B.V.Sc, Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, APAU, India

BS, Loyola Marymount University
Ph.D. Virginia Commonwealth University, Medical College of Virginia

1988-1992 B.S. Biology magna cum laude, Lyon College
1994-1996 M.S. Microbiology, University of Arkansas, Advisor: Mack Ivey, Ph.D.
1996-2001 Ph.D. Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Tufts University School of Medicine, Advisor: Andrew Camilli, Ph.D.
2001-2004 Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford School of Medicine, Advisor: Stanley Falkow, Ph.D.

D. Scott Merrell (Scotty) was born and raised in rural Bald Knob, Arkansas but left the south to complete his Ph.D. studies at Tufts Medical School. While there he conducted studies that were focused on understanding the role of the acid tolerance response in the ability of Vibrio cholerae to successfully colonize the human host. After completing his Ph.D. in 2001, he moved to Stanford University, where he completed a postdoctoral fellowship, which focused on utilization of genomic techniques to understand the stress response of the gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland. Scotty is a former “Applied Genomics of Infectious Diseases,” ID Training Fellow, a Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Cancer Fund Postdoctoral Fellow and received a Merck Irving S. Sigal Memorial Award for excellence in basic research in medical microbiology and infectious diseases in 2008. Scotty’s research group currently studies colonization and virulence factors of the gastric pathogen H. pylori, the microbiome associated with S. aureus infection, S. aureus resistance and polymicrobial interactions, and stress response in A. baumannii.

2001 Infectious Diseases Fellowship, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, MD
1998 Internal Medicine Residency, New York University, New York, NY
1995 M.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore,
1991 B.A., Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY

Edward Mitre is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland. He obtained his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1995 and then completed an internal medicine residency at New York University. He then did an infectious diseases fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, followed by post-doctoral research work in helminth immunology as well as clinical training in tropical medicine at the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases at the NIH. Dr. Mitre’s laboratory studies the biology, immunology, and pathogenesis of filarial infections and allergic diseases. Filariae are tissue-invasive nematodes that cause diseases such as elephantiasis and river blindness. Current studies in Dr. Mitre’s laboratory are focused on identifying novel drug and vaccine targets in filarial nematodes, evaluating natural products for the treatment of filariae, developing helminth-derived therapies for allergy and autoimmunity, and elucidating the mechanisms that drive immunoregulation in chronic helminth infections and allergy immunotherapy. In addition to his laboratory research and teaching responsibilities at the Uniformed Services University, Dr. Mitre regularly attends on the internal medicine and infectious diseases services at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Ph.D. in Immunology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 1995
B.S. in Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 1989

Dr. Brian C. Schaefer is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Uniformed Services University (USU) in Bethesda, MD. He also holds secondary appointments as Professor in the following USU graduate (Ph.D.) programs: Emerging Infectious Diseases; Molecular and Cell Biology; and Neuroscience. Dr. Schaefer received his B.S. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA in 1989. He then performed doctoral studies at Harvard University, where he was awarded his Ph.D. in Immunology in 1995. His dissertation project was performed with Drs. Samuel Speck and Jack Strominger, investigating the molecular basis of a restricted program of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) gene expression in Burkitt lymphoma. After a brief post-doctoral term with Drs. Speck and Strominger, Dr. Schaefer performed post-doctoral studies (1996 - 2002) with Drs. Philippa Marrack and John Kappler, investigating mechanisms of T cell receptor (TCR) signal transduction. Upon starting his faculty position at USU in 2002, Dr. Schaefer's initial research focus was defining molecular mechanisms by which the TCR transduces signals to the transcription factor, NF-kappaB. This project remains a major emphasis in his research program. Additional areas of active investigation now include defining the role of the inflammatory response in the central nervous system in response to traumatic brain injury (TBI) and viral infection; developing new therapeutic strategies to combat neurotropic viral infections; determining the role of myeloid cells in establishing local immunosuppression in lung adenocarcinoma; and elucidating molecular mechanisms that regulate cell death in myeloid cells. Dr. Schaefer has several NIH- and DoD-funded projects on the above topic areas, with collaborators at USU, the NIH, the Murtha Cancer Center (MCC) at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC), the University of Maryland, Duke University Medical Center and the Inova Health System. Dr. Schaefer's honors and awards include the USU Henry Wu Award for excellence in basic science research (2016), a competitive research award from the Dana Foundation Program in Brain and Immuno-imaging (2005) and a Kimmel Scholar Award (2004).

PhD, Boston University
BS, Ithaca College

Kim C. Williamson recently joined the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Faculty as a Professor in the Microbiology and Immunology Department. Her primary research interests are malaria immunity and transmission. Specific projects include developing malaria drugs and vaccines as well as studying the basic biology of parasite differentiation in vitro and in vivo in Ghana. She received a Ph.D. from Boston University and started working on malaria as a post-doctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health in the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. After her fellowship she joined the faculty at Loyola University Chicago, where she taught and did research before moving to USUHS. Dr. Williamson is also on the editorial board of Parasitology Research and a member of the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and the malERA Refresh Panel.