Speaker: Michael Gray, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Topic: Inorganic polyphosphate, (p)ppGpp, and a journey through bacterial physiology

Research:

Gray's research interests are focused on the molecular mechanisms by which bacteria sense and respond to changes in their environments. His lab is currently exploring how bacteria regulate inorganic polyphosphate synthesis in response to starvation and how pro-inflammatory enterobacteria use the RclA, RclB, and RclC proteins to resist antimicrobial oxidants used by the innate immune system to kill bacteria during inflammation.

Bio: 

Gray joined the faculty of the UAB Microbiology Department in January 2016. He received his B.S. from Cornell University, and his M.S. from the University of California-Davis, working in the lab of Valley Stewart. Before starting his doctoral program, he worked as a technician in Kathryn Boor's lab at Cornell. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, in the lab of Jorge Escalante, studying the synthesis and salvage of the lower ligand of vitamin B12 in bacteria. Gray was a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Ursula Jakob at the University of Michigan, where he studied bacterial responses to reactive chlorine stress and the role of the ancient biomolecule inorganic polyphosphate in stress response.