Dr. Cari Vanderpool is a professor and the Associate Head of Microbiology and a member of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) Microbiome Metabolic Engineering Theme at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Her NIH-funded research program focuses on molecular mechanisms of gene regulation in bacteria, and how these mechanisms control bacterial metabolism, growth and stress responses. Her work on small RNA regulators has led to the discovery of new, RNA-based regulatory mechanisms and uncovered new stress-responsive mechanisms controlling bacterial physiology.

Vanderpool has trained 2 postdoctoral fellows, 8 Ph.D. students, and over 20 undergraduate researchers. She has served in numerous leadership roles within the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Graduate College. She leads the University of Illinois Microbial Systems Initiative, a cross-campus collaboration to promote scholarship and education in microbial sciences.