Brittany Ross, PhD (CF-AIR Guest)
“Under Pressure: How Morphotype Shapes Mycobacterium abscessus Survival Under Host-Mimicking Stress”
Dr. Ross earned her B.S. from the University of California, Riverside. Before pursuing her Ph.D., she worked as a laboratory technician at UCR, where she studied how bacteria are transported from the gut lumen to immune dendritic cells via Peyer's Patches.
She also worked at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), studying how Enterroaggregative E. coli serotype O104:H4 binds to intestinal cells. Dr. Ross completed her Ph.D. at the UTMB under the mentorship of Dr. Alfredo Torres, where she studied dormancy induction in Burkholderia psuedomallei through toxin-antitoxin systems and screened for anti-dormancy therapeutics.
She then joined Georgia Tech as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Marvin Whiteley, focusing on Mycobacteroides abscessus (also known as Mycobacterium abscessus), a respiratory pathogen that can switch colony morphotypes in real-time, correlating with disease progression. Dr. Ross discovered that these morphotypes, despite being 99.999% genetically identical, require different genes for baseline functions and infection.
Christopher LaRock, Ph.D. (CCIV Guest)
"Balding bacteria shock their hosts – implications for inflammation, autoimmunity, and vaccinology”
Dr. Christopher N. LaRock is a tenured Associate Professor in the Departments of Microbiology & Immunology and Medicine (Division of Infectious Diseases) at Emory University School of Medicine, where he also serves as Director of the Microbiology & Molecular Genetics Graduate Program. He leads a multidisciplinary research program focused on host–microbe interactions, with particular emphasis on the mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis and immune defense. His work has advanced understanding of infectious diseases caused by pathogens such as Streptococcus pyogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and has contributed to the development of novel therapeutic strategies.
Dr. LaRock has secured more than $7 million in research funding from federal, foundation, and industry sources, and his discoveries have been published in leading scientific journals, including Nature, Science Immunology, and Nature Microbiology. He is a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigator in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease and a permanent member of the NIH Immunity and Host Defense study section.
In addition to his research, Dr. LaRock is deeply committed to graduate education and mentorship. He teaches courses in microbial pathogenesis and research ethics, directs graduate training programs, and mentors students across PhD, MD, and MPH pathways. He is also an active scientific leader, serving on editorial boards for journals such as Infection and Immunity, PLoS Pathogens, and Communications Biology.
Dr. LaRock earned his PhD in Microbiology from the University of Washington and completed his postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Diego. His work continues to shape the field of infectious disease research through both scientific discovery and the training of the next generation of researchers.