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Overview
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Genomics and bioinformatics provide powerful methods for the study of microbial pathogenicity, hence the development of a new field, Pathogenomics. The Brinkman laboratory comprises an interdisciplinary "wet-lab" and computer lab environment to investigate the following fundamental pathogenomics questions:

How does a given pathogen and the property of pathogenicity evolve?

What components of a bacterial genome sequence can be utilized to predict the subcellular localization of proteins, particularly cell surface-exposed proteins of relevance for pathogenicity?

What components of a genome sequence can be used to identify virulence factors?

Can we better control infectious disease through the development of innate immune system boosting approaches or anti-infective therapies?

To investigate these questions, the laboratory is performing computational analysis of genomes, individual proteins and other laboratory data to facilitate the generation of new hypotheses relevant to bacterial pathogenesis which can be tested in the laboratory using molecular genetic tools and model host systems. The laboratory endeavors to provide a stimulating interdisciplinary research environment for students to learn about bioinformatics, genomics, bacterial pathogenicity, innate immunity, molecular biology and microbiology.