Research Laboratory - Jonathan Schmitz, MD, PhD, D(ABMM)
VUMC Department of Pathology, Microbiology, & Immunology
PERSONALIZED MICROBIOLOGY:
BRIDGING CLINICAL DIAGNOSTICS AND MOLECULAR PATHOGENESIS
Welcome to the Schmitz Lab! We are a diverse group of microbial researchers... physicians and scientists, graduate and undergraduate trainees, laboratory technicians and medical technologists. Our work is exciting but non-traditional, lying at the interface between the clinical microbiology laboratory and microbial pathogenesis. We leverage the vast diversity of patient-derived specimens, microbial isolates, and electronic health data that arise during care across the Vanderbilt Health System. Applying experimental and big-data strategies to these ‘personalized’ resources, we seek to elucidate host-microbe interactions and develop novel diagnostic tools in a way that not only accounts for — but takes advantage of — the profound diversity of microbial pathogens from strain to strain and patient to patient.
Our efforts are broad and not limited to a particular organism, per se. But much of our work focuses on opportunistic bacterial pathogens of the urogenital tract, as well as the myriad clinical diversity of respiratory viral infections, including COVID-19. Our work is highly integrated with the clinical activities of the VUMC Diagnostic Laboratories, and we are major contributors to the mission of the Center for Personalized Microbiology and the microVU clinical microbial biorepository (in close collaboration with Hadjifrangiskou Laboratory at VUMC).
We invite you to take a look at our lab’s website, which provides more information on us and our current projects, from basic molecular mechanisms to clinical trials. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions about our work, or are interested in the possibility of collaboration or doing a rotation with us.
