Kim Orth, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, studies how virulence factors expressed by bacterial pathogens cause disease. Studies using microbial genetics, biochemistry, cell biology and bioinformatics on effectors from Yersinia and Vibrio bacteria have uncovered many mechanisms that bacteria use to subvert host signaling pathways, including the discovery of novel protein modifications. Her team's work has uncovered unexpected strategies that bacteria use to survive and spread. Additionally, her work has also helped reveal normal signaling pathways.

She has received a variety of prestigious awards, including the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Young Investigator Award, Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Diseases, ASBMB Merck Award, and election to the American Academy of Microbiology, American Association for the Advancement of Science, ASBMB (American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) Fellowship and to the National Academy of Sciences. Kim is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.