Scarlet Shell

Associate Professor-Biological Science

Affiliated Department or Office:

Education:

BA Smith College 2001

PhD University of California, San Diego 2008

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.

sshell@wpi.edu

Office Location

Life Sciences & Bioengineering Center 4016

Contact

Phone:

+1 (508) 8315000 x5917

Personal Website

Research Lab

Shell Lab

INTERDISCIPLINARY GROUPS

BioPoint

Overcoming Bacterial Defense Mechanisms

Research Interests

Research Interests:

Bacterial Stress Response

Bacterial Pathogenesis

Regulation of Gene Expression

Epigenetics

Genomics and Transcriptomics

Scholarly Work

Martini, M.C., Hicks, N.D., Xiao, J., Barbier, T., Sixsmith, J., Fortune, S.M., and Shell, S.S. Loss of RNase J leads to multi-drug tolerance and accumulation of highly structured mRNA fragments in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. bioRxiv. 2022.02.13.480260; doi: 10.1101/2022.02.13.480260. - 2022

Martini, M.C., Sun, H., and Shell, S.S. 2021. RNA sequencing for transcript 5'-end mapping in mycobacteria. Methods in Molecular Biology (Clifton, N.J.), 2314, 513-531. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1460-0_22. - 2021

Martini, M.C., Zhang, T., Williams, J.T., Abramovitch, R.B., Weathers, P.J., and Shell, S.S. (2020) Artemisia annua and Artemisia afra extracts exhibit strong bactericidal activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 262:113191. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2020.113191. - 2020

Randall, S.E.*, Martini, M.C.*, Zhou, Y., Joubran, S.R., and Shell, S.S. (2020). MamA essentiality in Mycobacterium smegmatis is explained by the presence of an apparent cognate restriction endonuclease. BMC Research Notes. 13(1):462. doi: 10.1186/s13104-020-05302-z. *Joint first authors. - 2020

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

Nguyen, T.G.*, Vargas-Blanco, D.A.*, Roberts, L.A, and Shell, S.S. (2020). The impact of leadered and leaderless gene structures on translation efficiency, transcript stability, and predicted transcription rates in Mycobacterium smegmatis. Journal of Bacteriology. doi: 10.1128/JB.00746-19 *Joint first authors. - 2020

Professional Highlights & Honors

Professional Highlights & Honors:

Board of Trustees Award for Outstanding Advising

2019

WPI

Sigma Xi Award for Outstanding Research and Scholarship

2020

WPI

News

SEE MORE NEWS ABOUT SCARLET SHELL

WPI and UMass Lowell Award Seed Grants to Research Teams

June 30, 2022

A student lounges in a hammock while working on a laptop.

The Month in Photos: March 2021

April 08, 2021

WPI Announces Faculty Promotions and Tenure Awards

March 02, 2021

Scarlet Shell

WPI Awarded NIH Grant to Identify Sweet Wormwood Plant Compounds Effective Against Tuberculosis Bacteria

January 21, 2021

Media Coverage

SEE ALL MEDIA COVERAGE

Telegram.com

WPI Professor Receives $1.1 Million Grant for Bacteria Study

Scarlet Shell, assistant professor of biology and biotechnology, has received a $1.1 million CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation for a five-year program to study the molecular mechanisms bacteria use to survive stressful conditions of starvation and lack of oxygen.