Cari Vanderpool, PhD

Cari Vanderpool is a professor of microbiology and the associate dean for research in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at the University of Illinois.
She joined the University of Illinois faculty in 2006 after completing her PhD at the University of Minnesota and postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health. Her research focuses on the fundamental biology of bacteria and the viruses that infect them (bacteriophages or phages). Her research group uses tools of biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology, and genomics to investigate bacterial interactions with each other and with their plant and animal hosts. One of the overall goals of her research is to understand how bacteria sense different environmental conditions and respond by changing their gene expression, cellular structure, and behaviors in ways that allow them to succeed in very diverse and sometimes harsh environments. This work is necessary to reveal how bacteria in the complex communities known as microbiomes contribute to human and animal and plant health.  
Phages are the most abundant biological entity on the planet and bacteria must constantly defend themselves against this natural predator. Dr. Vanderpool’s group is studying how phages interact with an array of bacterial species and how these interactions shape bacterial populations in a variety of natural environments, from the human gut to the soil. Bacteria are engaged in an “arms race” with the phages that target them, characterized by bacterial defense and phage counter-defense mechanisms and Dr. Vanderpool’s group is also studying these processes. There is a great deal of interest in harnessing the natural bacterial killing properties of phages for a range of biotechnology applications. Phages show special promise as an alternative to antibiotic therapies, and thus may help solve the looming antibiotic resistance crisis. Dr. Vanderpool’s group is embarking on new applied research directions that may lead to breakthroughs in use of phages as therapies for a range of human diseases.
For more about her research, visit www.vanderpoollab.org. 

Research Topics
Genetics, Genomics, Metabolic Regulation, Microbial Physiology, Regulation of Gene Expression, RNA Biology, Signal Transduction

Education

BS Microbiology, Purdue University, 1998
PhD Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology, University of Minnesota, 1998-2003
Postdoctoral Fellow, National Cancer Institute, 2003-2006