Dr. Lazzaro’s research program is focused on the functional and evolutionary genetics of insect-pathogen interactions, with a primary emphasis on opportunistic bacterial infection in the genetic model insect Drosophila melanogaster. The overarching philosophy in his group is that host and pathogen are interacting components of a single system, shaped by the abiotic environment. This means that genetic factors influencing host defense against infection may lie outside the canonical immune system, and may include genes conventionally associated with other physiological processes such as metabolism or reproduction. Furthermore, the host is itself the habitat in which the pathogen lives, so physiological changes in the host become environmental changes for the pathogen that may alter pathogen behavior and anti-immune defense.
Dr. Lazzaro received his B.S. in Genetics from the University of California at Davis in 1995, his Ph.D. in Biology from Pennsylvania State University in 2002, and he joined the faculty at Cornell University in 2003. He is a Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor with joint appointments in the Department of Entomology and the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at Cornell. He is the Director of the Cornell Institute of Host-Microbe Interactions and Disease (CIHMID).
