Lisa Racki

Lisa Racki, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at Scripps Research, with joint appointments in Immunology & Microbiology and the Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Sciences. She holds a B.A. from Harvard University (2003) and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, San Francisco (2011).

Her research focuses on understanding how bacteria reorganize their subcellular architecture during starvation to ensure survival. Key areas include polyphosphate granule synthesis and chromatin structure dynamics in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an opportunistic pathogen. The lab’s work aims to identify novel therapeutic targets for chronic bacterial infections.

Notable awards include the 2019 Baxter Young Investigator Award and the 2011 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award. Recent collaborative studies have revealed critical roles of polyphosphate in bacterial dormancy, with findings published in PNAS (2024) and other high-impact journals.

The Racki Lab is actively recruiting researchers and offers training opportunities in microscopy, biochemistry, and structural biology. The lab is located at the Skaggs Molecular Biology Building in La Jolla, California.