Even though we do not see them, microbes are everywhere around and inside us. From their perspective, they live in dense communities where they compete for survival. Their communities are immensely diverse and they must continually adapt to survive. Most microbes tend to help us, but a few can be harmful. Some microbes are the source of antibiotics that we use to treat the harmful ones. This is one of the greatest advances in medicine, until the harmful ones become resistant…

The Wright Lab uses experimental and computational approaches to study how microorganisms fight for survival. In particular, we seek to tackle the problem of antibiotic resistance through understanding the evolution of both antibiotic-producing microbes and antibiotic-resistant pathogens.

Four fundamental questions motivate research in the lab:

• How can we slow, and ultimately reverse, antibiotic resistance worldwide?

• Can we learn to interpret microbial communication within communities?

• How can we decipher the information contained in millions of microbial genomes?

• How do we develop optimal strategies for treating infectious diseases in the clinic?

Together, the answers to these questions help us to succeed at the mission of the Wright lab: To advance medicine by developing innovative solutions to the problem of antibiotic resistance.