Dr. Denise Monack is Professor of Microbiology and Immunology in the School of Medicine at Stanford University. The primary focus of her research is to understand the genetic and molecular mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis. She is particularly intrigued by host-adapted enteric pathogens that have evolved to persist within hosts for long periods of time. She studies pathogen-microbiota interactions and mechanisms of disease tolerance that impact host-to-host transmission. In addition, her laboratory studies the cytosolic recognition of bacteria. Her lab discovered that 2 innate immune pathways, type I IFN and the inflammasome, are sequentially linked and that this 2-tiered response is a host gauge of the "danger" level before commitment to host cell death.

She has received numerous prestigious awards in microbiology, including The Burroughs Wellcome Fund Recipient in Infectious Disease, Society of Leukocyte Biology G. J. Thorbecke Award, Stanford University Postdoc Association Mentor Award, Max Planck Sabbatical Award, Elected Chair of Division B for the American Society of Microbiology and is an elected fellow to the American Academy of Microbiology. She is Section Editor at PLoS Pathogens, Editor at Infection and Immunity. She is currently the director of the Training Grant for the Program in Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford and Associate Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine.