About

Hi, my name is Erin. I'm a scientist based in the beautiful, albeit foggy San Francisco. My expertise lies at the intersection of microbiology, immunology, and genetics alongside a growing interest in plant biology and pathology.

I’m currently a Postdoc and Schmidt Science Fellow at the University of California, Davis advised by Dr. Pam Ronald. I how plants evolve resistance against pathogens - like bacteria, fungi, and viruses - that cause severe disease in crops. I aim to use this research to further build upon multi-pathogen, sustainable agriculture practices.

I recently received my PhD from the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program at the University of California, San Francisco. Working in the lab of Dr. Joe Bondy-Denomy, I studied how new bacterial ‘immune systems’ work and co-evolve with bacteriophage (phage) using classic microbiology approaches coupled with modern genome engineering tools. Here, I discovered a viral 'sponge' protein that sequesters many unique immune signals, including cGAMP, that is present in immune systems across all domains of life.

Prior to graduate school, I was at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases as a post-baccalaureate fellow and studied HIV immunopathology and efficacy of HIV therapeutics.

Beyond science, I’m a committed advocate of gender equity and a Director of the organization Immunologists for Gender Equity and a Board Member of Women's Global Empowerment Fund.

When I’m not doing science or advocacy work, I’m an avid reader, coffee consumer, and (moderately above average) rock climber.

If you’d like to get in touch, please send me an email. I love meeting new people and want to learn more about sustainable agriculture and climate practices, as well as and ways to create innovative and inclusive learning environments.

Bacteriophages inhibit and evade cGAS-like immune function in bacteria

University of California, San Francisco • 2020 - 2023

My thesis work at the Bondy-Denomy Lab focuses on understanding the ancient origin of the eukaryotic cGAS-STING signaling system. In bacteria, this system is termed CBASS (cyclic-oligonucleotide-based anti-phage signaling system) I'm curious how it functions in a native host and how bacterial viruses (phage) evolve to antagonize CBASS. In doing so, I established a CBASS model system with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and discovered that phage encode an anti-CBASS protein to inhibit the system and acquire capsid mutations to evade targeting.

Our paper can be found at Cell.

Phage anti-CBASS protein simultaneously sequesters cyclic trinucleotides and dinucleotides

University of California, San Francisco • 2022 - 2023

As a follow-up to my thesis work, we further collaborated with the Feng Lab at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology to delve deeper into the mechanism of the anti-CBASS protein (Acb2). This protein can ‘sponge’ up to 12 immune signaling molecules, including those found in humans. I bioengineered Pseudomonas aeruginosa to study and validate this phenomenon in vivo. To date, this protein has yet to be observed in other bacterial or human viruses, establishing a new paradigm of how viruses inhibit signaling-based immune systems.

Our paper can be found at Molecular Cell.

Single phage proteins sequester TIR- and cGAS-generated signaling molecules

University of California, San Francisco • 2022 - 2023

With our colleagues in the Feng Lab, we identified another set of phage proteins that can sequester signals from two different bacterial immune systems: CBASS and Theoris. The Theoris system represents the ancient origin of TIR-based immunity in eukaryotes and is readily studied in humans and plants. This is the first instance of a single viral protein inhibiting multiple signaling systems.

A pre-print of this paper can be found at bioRxiv.

Defining the expanding mechanisms of phage-mediated activation of bacterial immunity

University of California, San Francisco • 2022 - 2023

In the past five years, 100+ anti-phage bacterial immune systems have been discovered. How phages activate and inhibit these systems remains major questions in the field. I wrote a review that describes our understanding of phage-associated molecular patterns (PhAMPs) for the most recently identified systems and highlight the simple, albeit brilliant genetic approaches scientists use to uncover these PhAMPs.

Our review paper can be found at Current Opinion in Microbiology.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa are a consistent and rich source of anti-phage immune systems

University of California, San Francisco • 2020 - 2023

With my colleagues in the Bondy-Denomy Lab, we built a computational tool to identify anti-phage bacterial immune systems and found that P. aeruginosa encode the most diverse repertoire of systems across all sequenced bacterial strains. Restriction Modification, CRISPR-Cas, and CBASS are the most abundant systems and the Bondy-Denomy Lab's core research focus. With this knowledge, I curated a comprehensive collection of P. aeruginosa and developed an experimental pipeline for discovery-driven biology in our favorite model organism.

Our paper can be found at Nucleic Acids Research.

Immunoreceptors and cytotoxicity of HIV-specific immune cells

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases • 2018 - 2019

Distinct immune exhaustion receptors, like PD-1 and TIGIT, are upregulated on human immune cells that have been exposed to chronic disease or infection. In the Tae-Wook Chun Lab, I studied how the expression of the immunoreceptor TIGIT changes on CD8 T cells in the context of chronic HIV infection, and how this results correlate with phenotypic and genotypic indicators of cytotoxicity.

Our paper can be found in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Sustained virologic control of HIV infection

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases • 2017 - 2019

One of the main approaches to cure HIV is through sustained virologic control in the absence of anti-retroviral therapy. With our colleauges in the Anthony Fauci Lab, I analyzed immunological and virological parameters of patients participating in HIV cure clinical trials.

A paper on HIV cure antibody therapy was published in Science Translational Medicine, and papers on HIV treatment interruption were published in PLoS Pathogens and Journal of Infectious Diseases in 2019 and 2020.