Steele-Mortimer Research Group

We study how Salmonella Typhimurium interacts with mammalian host cells and the roles these interactions play in pathogenesis. 

Olivia Steele-Mortimer's Research Group Image

From left to right: Chad Hillman, Brittany Fleming, Olivia Steele-Mortimer, Audrey Chong, Olof Nilsson, Kendal Cooper

Credit: NIAID

Olivia Steele-Mortimer, Ph.D.

Deputy Chief, Laboratory of Bacteriology
Chief, Salmonella-Host Cell Interactions Section

Education:

Ph.D., 1994, European Molecular Biology Laboratory

Dr. Steele-Mortimer received her Ph.D. in cell biology from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in 1994. From 1995 to 1999, she did postdoctoral research on Salmonella-host cell interactions in the laboratory of B. Brett Finlay at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, followed by one year at Washington University, St. Louis, with Phillip D. Stahl. She came to the National Institutes of Health in 2001 and became a tenured Senior Investigator in 2007.

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Audrey Chong, Ph.D.

Staff Scientist

Education:

Ph.D., Dalhousie University
B.Sc., University of Victoria

I am interested in the contributions of specific Salmonella Typhimurium populations to intestinal pathogenesis. We use an acute colitis mouse model of infection to look at intestinal colonization and gut inflammation, and a chronic mouse model of infection to assess persistence, fecal shedding, and transmission.

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Kendal Cooper, Ph.D.

Staff Scientist

Education:

Ph.D., Microbiology, University of Wisconsin, Madison
B.S., Microbiology, University of Montana

I study the role of Salmonella motility and chemotaxis in colonization of the mammalian gastrointestinal tract. I also am interested in Salmonella colonization of tumors and engineering delivery strains for tumor therapeutics.

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Chadwick Neal Hillman, B.S.

Biologist

Education:

B.S., UC Davis

I am the lab manager for the SHCI section.

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Olof Rickard Nilsson, Ph.D.

Visiting Research Fellow

Education:

Ph.D., University of Copenhagen, Denmark

M.S., University of Lund, Sweden

Languages Spoken: Swedish, German

My main research interest is the effects of systemic Salmonella Typhimurium infection on the central nervous system. I make extensive use of fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry to study both bacterial virulence factors involved in infection and the response of the immune system.

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Former Research Group Members

Postdoctoral Fellows

Timothy Bauler, Ph.D., Western Michigan University

Dan Drecktrah, Ph.D., University of Montana

Ciaran Finn, Ph.D., Trinity College Dublin

Brittany Fleming, Ph.D., Gilead Sciences

Antonio Ibarra, Ph.D., National Polytechnic Institute, Mexico 

Carrie Jolly, Ph.D., U.S. Food & Drug Administration

Leigh Knodler, Ph.D., Washington State University    

Virginia Koçieda, Ph.D., Lincoln County Asbestos Resource Program, Montana

Stephanie Lathrop, Ph.D., University of Montana

Preeti Malik-Kale, Ph.D., Denali Therapeutics Inc

Mary-Ann McCrackin, DVM, Ph.D., University of Georgia

Post-bac Fellows

Aaron Bestor

Kelsey Binder

Kristopher Bosi 

Whitney Boyd

Kendal Cooper

Courtney Lutterbach

Sarimar Medina-Maldonado

Tara Pierson

Sushmita Sridhar

Donna Twedt

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