Steve Diggle, Ph.D.
Georgia Institute of Technology
Steve Diggle, Ph.D. is a Professor in microbiology at Georgia Tech. He traces his interest in microbiology back to his elementary school teacher, who taught his class about the Great Plague of London in 1665. Diggle earned a degree in biological sciences at the University of Salford, before completing his Ph.D. at the University of Nottingham. His Ph.D. work focused on understanding bacterial cell-to-cell signaling (quorum sensing) in the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and he expanded on this work during his time as a postdoc.
Diggle was awarded a Royal Society Research Fellowship in 2006 and the °®¶¹´«Ã½ Society Fleming Award in 2010. His lab focuses on using molecular, evolution, ecology and genomics approaches to better understand chronic infections, such as those found in cystic fibrosis lungs, diabetic ulcers and non-healing wounds. The main organisms that the lab focuses on are the antibiotic resistant superbugs Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. By combining mechanistic and evolutionary approaches, they are not only able to work out how microbial behaviors are regulated, they can also address what fitness benefits certain behaviors provide to microbes, and how this influences virulence and antibiotic resistance during infection.
Diggle was awarded a Royal Society Research Fellowship in 2006 and the °®¶¹´«Ã½ Society Fleming Award in 2010. His lab focuses on using molecular, evolution, ecology and genomics approaches to better understand chronic infections, such as those found in cystic fibrosis lungs, diabetic ulcers and non-healing wounds. The main organisms that the lab focuses on are the antibiotic resistant superbugs Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. By combining mechanistic and evolutionary approaches, they are not only able to work out how microbial behaviors are regulated, they can also address what fitness benefits certain behaviors provide to microbes, and how this influences virulence and antibiotic resistance during infection.