Case Elizabeth Di Russo

A microbiologist by training, my research focuses on infectious disease, and bacterial pathogenesis in particular. I have worked with multiple different human pathogens, including Chlamydia trachomatis, Francisella tularensis, and Coxiella burnetti. My specific research emphases include the regulation of bacterial gene expression, host cell responses to infection, and the molecular mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis. In the course of my training, I have developed several important laboratory skills including techniques in molecular biology, bacterial genetics, cell biology and microscopy, primary cell culture, in vitro and in vivo models of infection, as well as transcriptomics. I have published scientific works under two different names: Elizabeth Gale Di Russo, prior to 2007, and Elizabeth Di Russo Case thereafter. My overarching research goal is to understand how Coxiella burnetii remodels its host cell to create a habitable niche that permits replication and transmission. My recent work in primary murine bone marrow-derived macrophages has expanded my area of interest into innate immune evasion, specifically, how intracellular bacteria evade or counteract the host’s pathogen sensing mechanisms that are designed to destroy them. I have also contributed to the development of an animal model of infection for Coxiella burnetii, which I have continued to use in the characterization of Coxiella novel virulence determinants.