The major interests of the Willett lab are defining how bacteria interact with their environment, discovering the function of uncharacterized genes, and creating and distributing biological tools (such as arrayed transposon libraries) to facilitate scientific research. We primarily study Enterococcus faecalis, a Gram-positive bacterial pathobiont that is a commensal in the gastrointestinal tract and a major cause of biofilm-associated nosocomial infections. Our lab uses a combination of bacterial genetics, molecular biology, microscopy, and high-throughput sequencing to discover host-microbe and microbe-microbe interactions that promote E. faecalis biofilm formation and competition. Our work has important implications for fundamental bacteriology, the ecology of commensal microbiomes, treatment of biofilm-associated and polymicrobial infections, and biofilm-associated antibiotic resistance.
Current areas of study in the lab include:
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Discovering novel E. faecalis determinants of biofilm formation and aggregation
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Defining uncharacterized gene function on a genome-wide scale
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Understanding contact-dependent and contact-independent mechanisms that mediate enterococcal competition with other microbes
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Identifying host-microbe interactions that promote biofilm formation
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Exploring genetic variation in enterococcal isolates from understudied niches
