Dr. Robert O. Watson

Robert O. Watson, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Assistant Professor

B.S., University of California, Irvine – Biological Sciences (1997)

M.P.H., University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health – Infectious Diseases (2000)

Ph.D., Yale University School of Medicine – Microbiology (2006)

Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, San Francisco (2007-2014)

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We are interested in the interface between intracellular bacterial pathogens and the hosts they infect. In particular, we study the notorious human pathogen, Mycbacterium tuberculosis, which remains a major global health threat. M. tuberculosis has evolved a variety of specific adaptations to not only survive but also replicate within the harsh environment inside a macrophage. We want to understand the mechanisms by which M. tuberculosis is able to modulate the innate immune response to establish an infection as well as how the host detects and responds to M. tuberculosis.

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