Cornell Center for Antimicrobial Resistance Research & Education Fall Seminar Series 2024

“The intersection of nutrition and infection at the host-pathogen interface”

Cells require nutrient metal to carry out essential biochemical processes. This requirement is something that the immune system has exploited to defend against infection by restricting microbial access to metal. This process of nutrient restriction during infection is called “nutritional immunity”. Bacterial pathogens evolved elaborate mechanisms to circumvent nutritional immunity and acquire metal during infection. This struggle for nutrient metal impacts microbial virulence as well as the immune response of the host, profoundly impacting the outcome of host-pathogen interactions. In this talk I will cover aspects of nutritional immunity and microbial countermeasures that are relevant to infectious diseases.

Eric Skaar Bio:

Dr. Skaar earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1996, and his Ph.D. in Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis and Master’s Degree in Public Health in Biostatistics and Epidemiology at Northwestern University in 2002. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship in Microbiology at the University of Chicago, Dr. Skaar joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 2005 as an assistant professor, and was named to the endowed Ernest W. Goodpasture Chair in Pathology in 2012 and he was named a University Distinguished Professor in 2022. He is the Vice Chair for Basic Research in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, and the Director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology, and Inflammation. The Skaar laboratory focuses on the impact of nutrition on the innate immune response to infectious diseases.  They investigate this topic through a number of projects that seek to understand (i) nutrient acquisition by bacterial pathogens, (ii) how vertebrate immune proteins sequester nutrients during the pathogenesis of infection and cancer, and (iii) competition for nutrients between pathogens and the healthy microbiome, and (iv) the impact of diet on infection.  His research has resulted in over 100 invited talks and over 250 published research articles. Dr. Skaar has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Pfizer Aspire Award, the Searle Scholars Award, the ICAAC/IDSA Young Investigator Award, the Chancellor’s award for Research, the Stanley Cohen Award for Research, the Postdoctoral Mentor of the Year from Vanderbilt University, and he was named a Burroughs Wellcome Investigator in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Diseases. Dr. Skaar is a Fellow in the American Academy of Microbiology (ASM) and the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS).