Christine Szymanski

Christine Szymanski is a Professor and Associate Department Head at the University of Georgia (UGA), holding adjunct roles in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Center for Vaccines and Immunology. She previously served as a Professor at the University of Alberta (2008–2016) and held research positions at the National Research Council of Canada and the Naval Medical Research Center. Her research focuses on microbial glycobiology, leveraging multidisciplinary approaches to study bacterial glycoconjugate pathways, bacteriophage recognition proteins, and host milk oligosaccharides' protective roles. Key contributions include developing vaccine platforms and elucidating microbiome interactions with antibiotic resistance and diarrheal disease mechanisms.

Education: Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology and Immunology (University of Alberta, 1996); B.Sc. in Chemistry Co-op and Molecular Biology (University of Winnipeg, 1991).

Research interests span applied microbiology, bioinformatics, and molecular mechanisms underlying microbe-host interactions. Notable projects include creating glycoengineered vaccines and characterizing bacterial resistance to human milk components. Her work bridges glycobiology with clinical applications, including therapeutic design for neuropathies like Guillain-Barré Syndrome.

Recent articles highlight advancements in phage-based biosensors, Streptococcus mutans glycosylation, and Campylobacter jejuni pathogenesis. Awards include the Distinguished Research Professor title (2025) and election to the National Academy of Inventors (2023). She advises graduate students like Bibi Zhou and Silke Andresen, and oversees the Christine Szymanski Lab, which collaborates on microbiome research and glycan databases like MicroGlycoDB.