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IMS Affiliated Faculty

Faculty are hired by their respective departments, to which they owe primary responsibility; however, the institute continues to be involved in the identification of hiring and faculty needs of the cross-disciplinary marine program through active involvement in new faculty searches and in support of departmental recommendations. Affiliated faculty and researchers are those individuals that utilize any of the ORU’s resources (space, seawater, equipment, etc) and/or individuals whose research falls within one of the seven research clusters supported by IMS. IMS only appoints affiliates in the ORU based on the individual researchers request to be associated with the ORU.
Victoria Auerbuch Stone
  • Title
    • Professor
  • Division Physical & Biological Sciences Division
  • Department
    • Microbiology & Environmental Toxicology Department
  • Phone
    831-459-3049
  • Email
  • Fax
    831-459-3524
  • Website
  • Office Location
    • Biomedical Sciences, Biomed 244
  • Mail Stop METX
  • Mailing Address
    • Mailstop: METX
  • Faculty Areas of Expertise Microbiology, Immunology, Molecular Biology
  • Courses METX 238: Pathogenesis: Molecular Mechanisms of Disease, METX 206A: Advanced Microbiology

Summary of Expertise

Bacterial pathogenesis.

Research Interests

The Auerbuch Stone lab elucidates how bacterial pathogens interact with the mammalian innate immune system, and uses this knowledge to discover novel antimicrobials. We focus our efforts on a specialized apparatus called the type III secretion system (T3SS), a needle-like bacterial appendage that injects effector proteins inside host cells to disarm immune defense mechanisms. The T3SS is a promising antimicrobial drug target; dozens of bacterial pathogens require a T3SS to infect a host, including the causative agents of pneumonia, plague, dysentery, and typhoid fever. The Auerbuch Stone lab approaches the study of the bacterial T3SS from three different angles:

 

• To understand how bacteria leverage their T3SS to cause disease, we use the model enteric pathogen Yersinia pseudotuberculosis to investigate how it senses host infection cues to regulate expression of the T3SS and associated virulence factors. 

 

• The mammalian innate immune system has evolved to recognize and respond to the T3SS in order to fight infection. We are investigating how T3SS immune recognition affects the outcome of disease.

• To identify small molecule inhibitors of the T3SS, we focus our drug screening effort on Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which uses a T3SS to cause hospital-acquired pneumonia and other types of infections often associated with antibiotic resistance.

Biography, Education and Training

B.A. Cornell University
Ph.D. UC Berkeley
Postdoc Tufts University School of Medicine

Honors, Awards and Grants

National Academy of Sciences Kavli Fellow, 2014

UC Santa Cruz Hellman Fellow, 2011