Alex Crofts, PhD
Studying how microbes adapt
to make communities, resist antibiotics, and cause disease.
Research
HOW DO MICROBES SENSE AND ADAPT TO THEIR ENVIRONMENT?
Discovering the ways microbes adapt reveals the tools they use to survive, which aid us in designing new microbe-targeting therapies. I study how microbes adapt to survive in complex environments, like within our microbiome or during human infections.
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I combine classic bench microbiology with metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and machine learning to find what drives microbial ecology, behavior, and antibiotic resistance.
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I am currently a postdoctoral researcher in Lora Hooper's lab at UT Southwestern Medical Center studying how time and space control bacterial evolution.
Recent Works
HOW DO MICROBES ADAPT INSIDE OF US TO CAUSE DISEASE?
Finding a Master Regulator of E. coli Virulence
HOST-PATHOGEN INTERACTIONS
A human infection model revealed enterotoxigenic E. coli senses intestinal oxygen to coordinate toxin expression via the FNR transcription factor.
"This study truly integrates bench-to-bedside research and highlights the power of multidisciplinary science."
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about
WHO: I am a microbiologist studying what drives microbial behaviors and how that impacts human health.
WHERE: I am a postdoctoral researcher in Lora Hooper's lab at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.
WHAT: I study how microbes adapt to complex environments (like within our microbiome) to discover the tools they use to form communities, resist antibiotics, and/or cause disease.
WHY: I get to see some amazing adaptive evolution in action(!) while investigating the microbiology that impacts our health everyday. The adaptations I look for represent the molecular tools microbes use to survive. This allows us to either target or support them using novel therapy design.
HOW: Microbes adapt in varied and surprising ways. That's why I combine classic bench microbiology with metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, machine learning, temporal pattern recognition, and spatial tracking to understand microbial adaptation.
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