Eduardo A. Groisman designated the Von Zedtwitz Professor of Microbial Pathogenesis
Eduardo A. Groisman, newly named as the Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Microbial Pathogenesis, focuses his research on seeking answers to a fundamental biological question: How does an organism know when, where, and for how long to turn a gene on or off?
Groisman addresses the question by investigating bacterial species that establish intimate interactions with animal hosts, specifically the gastroenteritis- and typhoid fever-causing Salmonella enterica and the gut symbiotic bacteria Escherichia coli and Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron. He examines how organisms integrate multiple signals into a cellular response, uncovers the function of novel proteins, and explores what makes a bacterium a pathogen.
All organisms respond to a change in their environment by modifying their behavior. Groisman is interested in identifying the specific signals that denote a given environment, the nature of the sensors that detect such signals, and how the sensors transmit this information to the regulators — initiating a response that enables the organism to survive and prosper in the new condition. His investigations resulted in the discovery of the first signal transduction systems that sense extracytoplasmic magnesium and ferric iron, and the first mRNAs that respond to cytoplasmic magnesium and ATP (the energy currency of most cells).
Groisman studied biochemistry at the University of Buenos Aires and earned his Ph.D. in molecular genetics and cell biology from the University of Chicago. He completed postdoctoral research at the Institut Pasteur (Paris), the Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla), and the University of California-San Diego. He began his academic career as an assistant professor of molecular microbiology at the Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis), eventually serving as a full professor there. In 2010, Groisman joined the Yale faculty as professor of microbial pathogenesis and a member of the Yale Microbial Sciences Institute.
The Yale professor is a widely published contributor to peer-reviewed journals. He is the editor of the book “Principles of Bacterial Pathogenesis” and serves on the editorial boards of the journals mBio, Transcription, and Molecular Microbiology.
Groisman’s research has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, among other institutions. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
