91Â鶹ÌìÃÀ

Jason Rosch received his Ph.D. in molecular microbiology and microbial pathogenesis from Washington University in St. Louis. He subsequently moved to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as a postdoctoral fellow, focusing on host-pathogen interactions in the context of the Streptococcus pneumoniae and high-risk hosts. He remained at St. Jude as faculty and has progressively risen through the ranks to his current appointment as full member in the Department of Host-Microbe Interactions.

Rosch has more than 20 years of experience working with pathogenic streptococci, as well as several other pathogens, from studying basic biology to modeling host-pathogen interactions. His current research focuses on polymicrobial respiratory infections, specifically influenza A virus and the pneumococcus, and the evolutionary constraints of antibiotic resistance development and spread using the pneumococcus as a model. The primary focus of these 2 areas of research is to understand how virulence strategies and development of antibiotic resistance differ in high-risk patient populations, through translational projects in collaboration with clinicians, as well as basic research into fundamental biological processes underlying these aspects of host-pathogen interactions. The research has encompassed lab-based experimental modeling of host-pathogen interactions and resistance development, and also detailed analysis of clinical isolates from high-risk pediatric patient populations.

Rosch’s background in bacterial genetics and pathogenesis modeling has allowed him to achieve mechanistic insights into host-pathogen interactions in such context and have revealed a number of important insights into these processes in several areas, including viral-bacterial co-infections, recalcitrant bacterial infections in immune-compromised patients and mechanistic dissection and targeted therapies to mitigate infectious complications in high-risk patient populations.