The Michael Klag Lab focuses on the epidemiology and prevention of kidney disease, cardiovascular disease and hypertension. Our research determined that the U.S. was experiencing an epidemic of end-stage kidney disease, pinpointed the incidence of kidney disease and published scholarship on risk factors for kidney disease such as race, diabetes and socioeconomic status. Our Precursors Study has shown that serum cholesterol measured at age 22 years is a predictor for midlife cardiovascular disease, a finding that has influenced policy about cholesterol screening in young adults. We also research health behaviors that lead to hypertension and study how differences in these behaviors affect urban and non-urban populations.

The O'Connor Lab studies the molecular basis of infectious disease using Legionella pneumophila pathogenesis as a model system. We are looking at the network of molecular interactions acting at the host-pathogen interface. Specifically, we use L. pneumophila pathogenesis to examine the numerous mechanisms by which an intracellular bacterial pathogen can establish infection, how it exploits host cell machinery to accomplish this, and how individual proteins and their component pathways coordinately contribute to disease. We are also studying the role of environmental hosts in the evolution of human pathogens. Using genetics and functional genomics, we compare and contrast the repertoires of virulence proteins required for growth in a broad assortment of hosts, how the network of molecular interactions differs between hosts, and the mechanisms by which L. pneumophila copes with this variation.

The Rao Laboratory studies the roles of intracellular cation transport in human health and disease using yeast as a model organism. Focus areas include intracellular Na+(K+)/H+ exchange and Golgi CA2+(MN+) ATPases.