Igor E. Brodsky

Igor E. Brodsky is the Robert R. Marshak Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathobiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, where he also holds an appointment as Associate Professor of Microbiology at the Perelman School of Medicine. His research focuses on the interplay between bacterial virulence mechanisms and host innate immune recognition, particularly the role of caspases in inflammatory cell death pathways.

• Education: PhD in Microbiology & Immunology from Stanford University (2004), AB in Molecular Biology from Princeton University (1997)

The Brodsky Lab investigates how Gram-negative pathogens like Salmonella typhimurium and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis interact with host pattern recognition receptors and inflammatory cell death mechanisms. Key areas include inflammasome activation, virulence factor delivery, and bacterial evasion of immune surveillance. Their work has revealed novel regulatory connections between caspase-1/8 platforms and immune responses.

Recent publications highlight studies on TCA cycle metabolite sensing (Wyrosky-Dolfi et al., J Exp Med 2014), cross-talk between inflammasomes and other cell death pathways (Philip et al., PNAS 2014; Peterson et al., J Exp Med 2017), and bacterial strategies to avoid inflammasome activation (Zwack et al., MBio 2015; Infect Immun 2017). Ongoing projects examine extrinsic apoptosis components in inflammation, in vivo cell death dynamics during infection, and bacterial secretion system interactions with immune sensors.

Lab Members:

• Current: Meghan Wynosky-Dolfi (Senior Research Scientist), Elisabet Bjanes (Graduate Student), Alexandra Delaney (Graduate Student), Daniel Sorobetea (Post-doctoral Fellow), Daniel Grubaugh (Post-doctoral Fellow), Baofeng Hu (Lab Manager)
• Former: Erin Zwack (Graduate Student/Postdoc NYU), Naomi Philip (IGG Graduate Student/Postdoc Yale), Lance Peterson (IGG Graduate Student/Pediatrics Resident), Annelise Snyder (Technician/PhD Student UW), Marta Andres-Terre (Undergrad/PhD Student Stanford), Dorothy Tovar (SUIP Student/PhD Student Stanford), Lindsay Theodore (Summer Student/PhD Student Harvard)