Tami Lieberman

Tami Lieberman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is affiliated with the School of Engineering and holds cross-appointments with the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES) and the Computational and Systems Biology Initiative (CSBi). Her research focuses on microbial evolution within human microbiomes, particularly examining how microbes adapt and coexist in complex environments like the skin.

Educated at Northwestern University (BA in Biological Sciences, 2009) and Harvard University (PhD in Systems Biology, 2014), Lieberman’s work bridges microbiology, genomics, and clinical applications. Her lab investigates molecular mechanisms driving microbial colonization success, with implications for developing probiotics and improving clinical microbiome manipulation techniques.

Key research themes include the evolution of skin microbiota during health and disease, antibiotic resistance dynamics, and the role of microbial interactions in community stability. Her lab’s recent studies highlight how anatomical features influence strain coexistence and how Staphylococcus aureus evolves during eczema treatments. Collaborations span engineering, medicine, and computational biology, reflecting her interdisciplinary approach.

Lieberman’s lab actively explores translational applications, such as probiotic strategies for skin health and novel diagnostic tools for tracking microbial adaptation. She is a recipient of grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense, supporting her work on microbiome-driven therapies and pathogen evolution.

Her research has been featured in high-impact journals like Cell Host & Microbe and Microbiology Spectrum, and she regularly contributes to public discourse on microbiome science through media outlets like MIT News. Lieberman’s lab fosters a collaborative environment, training students and postdocs in experimental, computational, and clinical microbiology.