Shaun Brinsmade, Ph.D.
Georgetown University
Shaun Brinsmade, Ph.D., is a Provost’s Distinguished Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at Georgetown University. His laboratory studies the basic biology of Staphylococcus aureus and the molecular mechanisms by which bacterial pathogens control the production of virulence factors.
Brinsmade earned his Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he studied ethanolamine catabolism and Acetyl-CoA homeostasis in Salmonella enterica with Jorge Escalante-Semerena, Ph.D. He then became a Ruth L. Kirschstein postdoctoral fellow working at Tufts University School of Medicine with Linc Sonenshein, Ph.D.
His current research views the regulation of virulence through the lens of nutrient sufficiency, and includes transcriptional, post-transcriptional and post-translational mechanisms. His laboratory also studies bacterial gene expression during infection using single-cell approaches to examine how host tissue drives gene expression in 3 dimensions.
Brinsmade’s research activities involve a diverse group of scientists-in-training, and he is a trainer for Georgetown’s Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) T32 training grant. He was the recipient of an NIH Pathway to Independence Award and is currently a member of Journal of Bacteriology’s editorial board. He also serves as co-director of Graduate Studies for the Biology Ph.D. program at Georgetown.