Work in the lab has been focused for many years on both the pathogenesis of Salmonella spp. and the Select agent Francisella tularensis and Salmonella spp. An active area of research in the lab is to understand the Salmonella factors that allow this important human pathogen to cause foodborne diseases. We are actively studying factors such as Type 1 fimbriae to understand the role that this extracellular factor plays in promoting the ability of Salmonella to colonize the gastrointestinal tract and to establish itself as an important component of the intestinal microbiome. We are primarily examining these interactions in poultry which is an important source of foodborne infection, as well as in the human intestinal tract using tissue culture cells as a model for disease. The long-term goals of the project are to identify an intervention strategy that might allow us to supplant pathogenic Salmonella species as dominant constituents of the poultry intestinal microbiome.