Awarded in 2025
Home Department: Genetics
Faculty Advisors: Alex Gao (Biochemistry and Microbiology & Immunology) and Daniel Herschlag (Biochemistry)

Research Title: Mechanisms of Protease Defense and Regulation in Bacterial Innate Immunity

Immune proteases mediate inflammation and programmed cell death in eukaryotes, but their role in bacteria remains largely unexplored. Bacterial immune proteases are encoded next to genes the Gao lab predicts are downstream immune effectors. Understanding how bacterial proteases activate these effectors could reveal an uncharacterized class of molecular strategies used to combat phage infection and shed light on the evolution of eukaryotic innate immunity. Simone will investigate how protease cleavage of immune effectors induces programmed cell death and develop quantitative models of their regulation, which could inform the design of future antimicrobials targeting bacterial programmed cell death.