معرفی
Zemer Gitai is the Edwin Grant Conklin Professor of Biology and Professor of Molecular Biology at Princeton University, where he leads the Gitai Lab in the Department of Molecular Biology. His research focuses on the fundamental mechanisms of bacterial cell biology, including cytoskeletal dynamics, cellular polarity, and morphogenesis.
- Institution: Princeton University
- Department: Department of Molecular Biology
- Lab: Gitai Lab
- Contact: zgitai@princeton.edu
Gitai’s research explores how bacteria achieve complex subcellular organization and how these processes contribute to pathogenesis and antibiotic resistance. His lab uses interdisciplinary methods including genetics, biochemistry, live-cell imaging, genomics, and computational modeling to study bacterial self-organization, microbe-host interactions, and novel antibiotic discovery. A central theme is understanding how bacterial cytoskeletal proteins like MreB regulate cell shape and chromosome segregation.
His recent publications (2022–2024) reveal trends in mechanosensing, trans-kingdom signaling, and transgenerational epigenetic inheritance mediated by bacterial small RNAs. His work spans model organisms like Caulobacter crescentus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and C. elegans, uncovering how bacteria sense surface stiffness, regulate nitrogen metabolism to influence host behavior, and dynamically control pilus-based motility.
Scientific honors include:
- NIH Pioneer Award (2015)
Gitai actively mentors students and postdoctoral researchers, with several advisees contributing to high-impact publications. His lab has developed innovative tools such as MitoRiboSeq for monitoring mitochondrial translation and M3-Seq for single-cell microbial transcriptomics. He also investigates how antibiotics can be used to probe bacterial cell biology and combat resistance through anti-virulence strategies. The Gitai Lab fosters collaborative research with Princeton colleagues across disciplines.
