Nicolas Shealy

Nicolas (Nic) Gray Shealy

Originally from Columbia, South Carolina, he graduated from the College of Charleston in 2018 cum laude with a B.S. in Biology and minor in Chemistry. Immediately following, he participated in a post-bac (PREP) at MUSC studying post-translational modification of collagen. Nic joined IGP as a Russell G. Hamilton scholar in 2019 and subsequently joined the lab in 2020. In the summer of 2021, Nic was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute James E. Gilliam Foundation fellow. Nic’s work focuses on understanding how the enteric pathogen Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Tm) gains advantage over the collection of commensal bacteria known as the gut microbiota. Specifically, he studies utilization of amino acids and short chain fatty acids by S. Tm. He ultimately aims to start a lab one day of his own interrogating beneficial and deleterious microbe-microbe/microbe-host interactions centered on the gut microbiota. In the past year, Nic served as a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Liaison for the PMI GSA as well as writes for the PMI GSA newsletter, The Pathogen. Starting March 2022, Nic will serve as a student member for the Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology, and Inflammation Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (VI4 DEI) committee as well as the Basic Science DEI committee. In his free time, Nic enjoys cooking/baking, knitting, painting, and hanging out with his friends whenever he can. His favorite creation to date is a lemon custard tart with a raspberry compote.