2025-2026 Seminars
Speakers in the Fall 2025 – Spring 2026 Season
Thursday, September 11, 2025
Ryan Valdez, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow (Garsin Lab), Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics
UTHealth Houston, McGovern Medical School
“Direct and indirect factors render LPS essential to Gram-negative physiology”
10:30 AM
Thursday, September 18, 2025
Neethu Kamarudheen, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Genetics
MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
“Understanding the role of H4K8ac interacting Ribosomal Proteins in Pathogen avoidance”
10:30 AM
Thursday, September 25, 2025
Oliyad Oumer, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow (Proctor Lab), Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics
UTHealth Houston, McGovern Medical School
“Metagenomic Insights: From Extreme Environments to Aircraft and Human Health”
10:30 AM
Thursday, October 9, 2025
Qi Xu, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow (Pountain Lab), Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics
UTHealth Houston, McGovern Medical School
“Pseudomonas aeruginosa Strategies in Infections and Interbacterial Competition”
10:30 AM
Thursday, October 16, 2025
Katy Patras, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology
Baylor College of Medicine
“Gestational Diabetes Disrupts Maternal Immunity and the Vaginal Microbiota to Promote”
10:30 AM
Thursday, October 23, 2025
Todd Treangen, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science
Rice University
“Scalable Computational Approaches for Biological Discovery in Microbes and Microbiomes”
10:30 AM
Thursday, November 6, 2025
Jason Rosch, PhD
Faculty Member, Department of Host-Microbe Interactions
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
“Microbial Virulence and Resistance Strategies in High-Risk Hosts”
10:30 AM
Thursday, December 4, 2025
Santosh Kumar, PhD
Senior Research Associate, Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics
UTHealth Houston, McGovern Medical School
“Role of accessory lipoproteins in the essential Bam complex”
10:30 AM
Thursday, February 5, 2026
Navonil Banrjee, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar
University of California, Los Angeles
“Chemosensory mechanisms driving host-parasite interactions in human-infective helminths”
10:30 AM
Thursday, February 12, 2026
Jing Zhang, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
UT Southwestern Medical Center
“Illuminating Bacterial Pathogenesis and Protein Evolution and Interactions through Big Data & AI”
10:30 AM
Thursday, February 19, 2026
Keith Matthews, PhD
Professor of Parasite Biology, Director of the Centre for Immunity, Infection, and Evolution
University of Edinburgh
“Quorum sensing signaling in African trypanosomes”
10:30 AM – Zoom Video Meeting
Thursday, February 26, 2026
Indira Mysorekar, PhD
Professor and Chief of Basic and Translational Research
Baylor College of Medicine
“Host–Pathogen Interactions at the Maternal–Fetal Interface: viral and bacterial strategies and host defenses“
10:30 AM
Thursday, March 5, 2026
Ben Burks, PhD
University of Oxford
“Adventures in bacterial protein transport and motility”
10:30 AM – Zoom Video Meeting
Thursday, March 26, 2026
Bing Zhai, PhD
Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
“Quantitative dynamics of the human vaginal mycobiome in pregnancy”
10:30 AM
Thursday, April 2, 2026
Kirsten Hanson, Ph.D.
UT San Antonio
“Quantitative bioimaging of Plasmodium liver stage protein synthesis”
10:30 AM
Thursday, April 16, 2026
Julian Hurdle, PhD
Texas A&M University
“Antimicrobial Resistance Mechanisms Driving the Discovery of New Therapies against C. difficile”
10:30 AM
Thursday, April 23, 2026
Oliver Kurzai, PhD
University of Wurzburg
“The changing world of fungal infections”
10:30 AM – Zoom Video Meeting
Thursday, April 30, 2026
Amy Buck, PhD
University of Edinburgh
“RNA communication in the gut: lessons from helminths”
10:30 AM – Zoom Video Meeting