We are part of the Department of Microbiology in the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine. The mission of our lab is twofold: 1) to make novel discoveries in bacterial physiology, regulation, and stress response, and 2) to train rigorous, creative, and collaborative microbiologists.
We use a combination of genetic, genomic, and biochemical techniques to study how bacteria sense and respond to their environments. We are particularly interested in the molecular biology of the symbiotic and probiotic bacteria that make up the healthy microbiome, and are working to identify new regulators, proteins, and pathways that may influence the interactions between bacteria and their human or animal hosts. Our current research has three primary tracks:
For more information and for details on specific projects ongoing in the lab, see our Research page.
Dr. Gray's free course packet on Bacterial Genetics and Molecular Biology is available here.
The Gray lab is dedicated to diversity and inclusion, and we promote and recognize principles of fairness and equity in relation to, and across, intersections of race, age, color, disability, faith, religion, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, sex, sexual orientation, social class, economic class, ethnicity, gender identity, gender expression, and all other identities represented among our diverse communities.
Congratulations to Cortez for his successful public defense!
Congratulations to Cortez Bowlin for his successful Halloween Ph.D. thesis defense! Stay tuned for the public defense on Nov. 8th. :-)
Hitting the big time now!
Team HOSCN enjoying the sun and science at last week's Molecular Genetics of Bacteria and Phages meeting in Madison, WI!
Bidding farewell to long-time Gray lab technician Abbi Long, as she heads off to start her PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. We'll miss you, Abbi!
Welcome to new Gray lab research assistant Harshita Sharma!
Welcome to Dr. Chris Hamm, IRACDA-MERIT postdoctoral fellow and newest member of the Gray lab's Team Polyphosphate!
Looking sharp at Julia's wedding! :-)
Congratulations to Gray lab Ph.D. candidate Julia Meredith on her wedding! It was beautiful, and now her legal name matches the name on her papers :-)
Welcome to the latest Gray lab member, SciTech undergrad Adhvika Mahadevan!
Hot off the presses! Julia's review of the role of hypothiocyanite in host-microbe interactions is now online ahead of print at Molecular Microbiology.
Happy 2023 from the Gray Lab!
Welcome to new PhD student Avery Lieber, who will be joining us to work on bacterial HOSCN resistance!
The updated 2023 version of my free Bacterial Genetics and Molecular Biology course packet is now available.
Welcome to rotation student Zonaira Khalid, who will be joining us here in the Gray lab for the next couple of months!