Brenda Anne Wilson, Ph.D.
she/her/hers
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Dr. Brenda Anne Wilson is professor of microbiology and associate director of undergraduate education in the School of Molecular & Cellular Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). She holds joint appointments in pathobiology at the College of Veterinary Medicine and in biomedical and translational sciences at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. She is the Illinois Faculty Fellow for Sandia National Laboratories in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation.
After completing her B.A. in biochemistry and German from Barnard College at Columbia University, she was a DAAD graduate fellow of biochemistry at the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München in Germany, studying virus labeling for in vivo tracking. She then earned her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry from the Johns Hopkins University, where she received the Ernest M. Marks Achievement Award and an AAUW doctoral fellowship to study antibiotic biosynthesis. She began her studies on bacterial pathogenesis and bacterial protein toxins as an NIH-postdoctoral fellow in microbiology at Harvard Medical School and during her first tenured faculty appointment in biochemistry at Wright State University School of Medicine.
Wilson's current research focuses on host-microbe interactions with 3 main basic science and translational thrusts: (1) understanding the structure, function and molecular evolution of bacterial protein toxins, their molecular interactions and biochemical effects on cells; (2) development of post-exposure antitoxin therapeutics and bacterial toxin-inspired drug delivery [BTIDD] platforms for cytosolic delivery of biologics and (3) exploiting comparative and functional genomic technologies to study multidrug-resistant bacteria and microbiomes.
After completing her B.A. in biochemistry and German from Barnard College at Columbia University, she was a DAAD graduate fellow of biochemistry at the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München in Germany, studying virus labeling for in vivo tracking. She then earned her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry from the Johns Hopkins University, where she received the Ernest M. Marks Achievement Award and an AAUW doctoral fellowship to study antibiotic biosynthesis. She began her studies on bacterial pathogenesis and bacterial protein toxins as an NIH-postdoctoral fellow in microbiology at Harvard Medical School and during her first tenured faculty appointment in biochemistry at Wright State University School of Medicine.
Wilson's current research focuses on host-microbe interactions with 3 main basic science and translational thrusts: (1) understanding the structure, function and molecular evolution of bacterial protein toxins, their molecular interactions and biochemical effects on cells; (2) development of post-exposure antitoxin therapeutics and bacterial toxin-inspired drug delivery [BTIDD] platforms for cytosolic delivery of biologics and (3) exploiting comparative and functional genomic technologies to study multidrug-resistant bacteria and microbiomes.