Danielle A. Garsin
Professor
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
The University of Texas Health Science Center
United States of America
Biography
Dr. Garsin is a professor in the Medical School Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Dr. Garsin came to UTHealth as an assistant professor in 2004 following a postdoctoral fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. She earned her Ph.D. in Biochemistry at Harvard University and her B.S. in Biological Sciences at Cornell University. Dr. Garsin is at heart a bacterial geneticist, and this foundation supports her interests in bacterial pathogenesis, gene regulation, and host-microbe and microbe-microbe interactions. Her studies are centered on the biology of the human bacterial pathogen, Enterococcus faecalis. One NIH-funded research focus is on the post-initiation mechanisms of gene regulation in E. faecalis. Another is on the biology of reactive oxygen species in the immune response elicited in the model host Caenorhabditis elegans. Finally, Dr. Garsin is developing a new project studying the interactions between E. faecalis and the human fungal pathogen, Candida albicans. She and her collaborators discovered that the microbes inhibit each other’s virulence leading to the identification of compounds with potential for anti-infective therapeutic development. Dr. Garsin has received many commendations for excellence in research and education. In 2004, she received an Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar Award in Global Infectious Disease and was a finalist in 2008 for Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigator in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease. Also in 2008, she was awarded a UT Young Investigator award. She was the recipient of the Dean’s Teaching Excellence Award in 2009 and 2012. Dr. Garsin is currently an associate editor of PLOS Genetics and a permanent member of the Prokaryotic Cell and Molecular Biology (PCMB) NIH review group.
Research Interest
Elucidation of innate immune responses using C. elegans as a model host. Mechanisms of gene regulation in the human pathogen Enterococcus faecalis.
Publications
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Tiller GR, DA Garsin. The SKPO-1 Peroxidase Functions in the Hypodermis to Protect C. elegans From Bacterial Infection. Genetics. 2014; 197, 515-526
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DebRoy S, M Gebbie, A Ramesh, JR Goodson, MR Cruz, A van Hoof, WC Winkler, DA Garsin. A Riboswitch-Containing sRNA Controls Gene Expression by Sequestration of a Response Regulator. Science. 2014; 345, 937-940.
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McCallum KC, B Liu, JC Fierro-González, P Swoboda, S Arur, A Miranda-Vizuete, DA Garsin. TRX-1 Regulates SKN-1 Nuclear Localization Cell Non-autonomously in Caenorhabditis elegans. Genetics. 2016; 203, 387-402.
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Graham CE, MR Cruz, DA Garsin, MC Lorenz. The Enterococcus faecalis Bacteriocin EntV Inhibits Hyphal Morphogenesis, Biofilm Formation, and Virulence of Candida albicans. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017.
