Welcome to the Caballero-Flores Lab!
In our lab, we study the mechanisms by which commensal bacteria and local immune responses restrict the access and expansion of invading pathogens in the gut, and in turn, how these pathogens evade host barriers to establish infection. To address this, we primarily use the Citrobacter rodentium-mouse model of infection, which recapitulates human disease caused by enteropathogenic and enterohemorrhagic E. coli, as well as methods from microbiology, immunology, and high-throughput technologies.
Our overarching goal is to unravel the complex host-pathogen-microbiota interactions underlying the establishment, progression, and resolution of infection toward a better understanding and treatment of disease.