I have a passion for understanding how living systems work, as well as for sharing my love of biology and research with the next generation of scientists and informed citizens.
The central goal of my lab is to understand the regulatory mechanisms that underlie mycobacterial stress tolerance. We combine genetics, genomics, transcriptomics and biochemistry to understand how mycobacteria respond to, and ultimately survive, stressful conditions.
Our guiding principles are curiosity, respect, and scientific rigor. Together we strive to push the boundaries of knowledge and advance our field by addressing basic research questions that hold the keys to advancements in human health and understanding of the natural world.
Scholarly Work
Vargas-Blanco, D.A., Zhou, Y., Zamalloa, L.G., Antonelli, T., and Shell, S.S. (2019). mRNA Degradation Rates Are Coupled to Metabolic Status in Mycobacterium smegmatis. mBio, DOI: 10.1128/mBio.00957-19.
2019
Vargas-Blanco, D.A., and Shell, S.S. (2020). Regulation of mRNA Stability During Bacterial Stress Responses. Frontiers in Microbiology. 11:2111. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.02111.
2020
Martini, C.M., Zhou, Y., Sun, H., and Shell, S. S. 2019. Defining the Transcriptional and Post-transcriptional Landscapes of Mycobacterium smegmatis in Aerobic Growth and Hypoxia. Frontiers in Microbiology, 10: 591. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2019.00591 2019
Datta, P., Ravi, J., Guerrini, V., Chauhan, R., Neiditch, M.B., Shell, S.S., Fortune, S.M., Hancioglu, B., Igoshin, O., Gennaro, M. L. 2015. The Psp system of Mycobacterium tuberculosis integrates envelope stress sensing and envelope preserving functions. Molecular Microbiology. doi:10.1111/mmi.1303
Shell, S. S., Chase, M. R., Ioerger, T. R., & Fortune, S. M. 2015. RNA sequencing for transcript 5'-end mapping in mycobacteria. Methods in Molecular Biology (Clifton, N.J.), 1285, 31–45. doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-2450-9_3.
Shell, S.S., Prestwich, E.G., Baek, S.H., Shah, R.R., Sassetti, C.M., Dedon, P.C., and Fortune, S.M. 2013. DNA Methylation Impacts Gene Expression and Ensures Hypoxic Survival of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. PLoS Pathogens. 9(7): e1003419. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1003419
WPI
WPI