Dr. Aaron Reinke, our top candidate in the MoGen search "Molecular Microbiology & Infectious Disease", will join the Department as an Assistant Professor in September 2017, on the 16th floor of the MaRS West Tower. His research program is focused on a unique model system of microsporidial parasites that infect worms, specifically studying co-evolution of Caenorhabditis nematode hosts and Nematocida pathogens. His research encompasses interdisciplinary approaches with biochemistry, genetics, systems biology, and technology development. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of California, Davis, and his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Amy Keating’s laboratory studying bZIP-mediated protein-protein interaction networks using biophysical approaches. During his postdoctoral work with Emily Troemel at the University of California, San Diego, he has developed technology to identify microsporidian effector proteins with tissue and subcellular specificity in C. elegans, and has leveraged genomic analyses to dissect mechanisms of host-pathogen interactions.