Erik Petersen
Assistant Professor
Department of Health Sciences
Contact:
EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology in the Department of Pathobiological Sciences,
2005-2011
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
B.S. with Honors in Biochemistry, 2001-2005
B.S. with Honors in Microbiology, 2001-2005
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
Postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Microbiology, 2012-2019
COURSES TAUGHT
Undergraduate Immunology (HSCI 3540)
Graduate Immunology (HSCI 5110)
RESEARCH FOCUS
My research concerns bacterial signaling and the ways in which bacteria identify their changing environmental conditions. I primarily work on the bacterial signaling molecule cyclic-di-GMP, a nucleotide second messenger used by a number of bacterial species to regulate biofilm formation and motility in response to their environment. Cyclic-di-GMP regulates a number of phenotypes including biofilm formation and motility. My work involves several different bacterial systems that includes the intracellular pathogen Salmonella Typhimurium and hospital-acquired, multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Petersen, E., and S. I. Miller. 2019. Measuring individual cell c-di-GMP: Identifying population diversity and c-di-GMP heterogeneity. Springer Nature, in press.
Petersen, E., and S. I. Miller. 2019. The Cellular Microbiology of Salmonellae Interactions with Macrophages. Cell Microbiol:e13116.
Petersen, E., E. Mills, and S. I. Miller. 2019. Cyclic-di-GMP regulation promotes survival of an intracellular Salmonella Typhimurium slow-replicating persister subpopulation. P.N.A.S. 116(13):6335-6340.
Mills, E.*, E. Petersen*, B.R. Kulasekara, and S.I. Miller. 2015. A direct screen for c-di-GMP modulators reveals a Salmonella Typhimurium periplasmic L-arginine-sensing pathway. Sci Signal 8(380):ra57. (*Co-First Authors)
Petersen, E., G. Rajashekara, N. Sanakkayala, L. Eskra, J. Harms, and G. Splitter. 2013. Erythritol triggers expression of virulence traits in Brucella melitensis. Microbes Infect 15:440-449.
Petersen, E., P. Chaudhuri, C. Gourley, J. Harms, and G. Splitter. 2011. Brucella melitensis cyclic di-GMP phosphodiesterase BpdA controls expression of flagellar genes. J Bacteriol 193:5683-5691.