At the meeting, Abbie Weight, a graduate student in Helen Lazear’s lab, won an award for Best Graduate Oral Presentation! Congratulations to Abbie on the award!

https://www.northcarolinaasm.org/2025-meeting

Dr. Liu’s project, titled “Population Genomics–Guided Dissection of the Bacterial Genetic Basis of Tuberculosis Transmissibility”, aims to uncover how Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) strains evolve to become highly transmissible within human populations. By integrating large-scale population genomics (120,000 Mtb genomes) with high-throughput bacterial phenotyping and experimental genetics, his research seeks to identify key mutations and functional pathways that enhance transmission. His lab will develop an innovative high-throughput bacterial physiological profiling platform to define functional differences between highly and poorly transmissible strains under host-relevant conditions. In addition, the project will investigate how redox-associated mutations, such as those in sseA and trxB2, promote transmission by enhancing bacterial survival under stress and facilitating granuloma necrosis.

This highly competitive DP2 award recognizes early-stage investigators pursuing bold, creative research programs with the potential to transform their fields. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Liu on this outstanding achievement and recognition of his pioneering contributions to microbial genomics and infectious-disease research.