How we evolved at Northwestern
1998 - 2004

Before coming to Northwestern, the lab was at Stanford University from 1988-1998. The first new member of the lab at Northwestern (Travis Harrison) joined in October 1998. Since June 1999, the group at NU has maintained a steady level of ~10 researchers comprising 3-5 post doctoral fellows/research associates, 3-5 graduate students and 1-2 research assistants. Historically (from 1988-1998) our emphasis was entirely on malaria parasites, but after moving to Northwestern, we have began studying the intracellular bacterium, S. Typhimurium.

We are located on the third floor of Ward Building and occupy 1400 sq ft of contiguous lab space. Due to our interests in bacterial pathogenesis and parasitic protozoa, we conduct weekly meetings both separately and jointly on the bacterial and protozoan work. This sounds like a lot of meetings, but it sustains the interdisciplinary nature of our lab. In addition, we organize journal clubs on subjects such as bio-informatics and genomics. A cholesterol journal club is also planned because of our interests in the emerging role of this lipid in establishment of an infection and modulation of host responses. We participate in a weekly, departmental bacteriology journal club. We also conduct a Chicago Area Molecular Parasitology Club, and a Chicago Area Microbial Pathogenesis Club is being considered. This is over and above the many seminars offered weekly at Northwestern.