Chris Waters, Ph.D., attended the University of Kansas, where he fell in love with microbiology while performing undergraduate research. He obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota in the laboratory of Gary Dunny studying pheromone-inducible conjugation in Enterococcus faecalis. This research catalyzed an interest in bacterial chemical signaling, which was continued as a postdoc with Bonnie Bassler at Princeton University studying quorum sensing in Vibrios. During this time, Waters discovered that quorum sensing regulated the second messenger cyclic di-GMP to control biofilm formation.

Waters joined the faculty of Michigan State University in 2008, continuing to study cyclic di-GMP signaling, quorum sensing, biofilm formation and motility in Vibrio cholerae and other bacteria. Over the last 2 decades, his team has developed compounds to inhibit biofilm formation and cyclic di-nucleotide based gene therapies as vaccine adjuvants and cancer immunotherapies. Over the last 10 years, understanding the evolutionary interplay between bacteria and their phages has become a major focus of his group with aims of developing novel phage therapies.

Waters also teaches Microbial Genetics to ~150 junior/senior students at MSU and has mentored over 60 undergraduate students along with many graduate students and postdocs in his laboratory.