Dr. Cahoon received her Ph.D. in 2012 with Hank Seifert at Northwestern University, performed her postdoctoral studies with Nancy Freitag at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and joined the Department in 2020.
Gram-positive bacteria are causative agents of serious and often fatal infections in both hospital and community settings, however many fundamental aspects of their physiology and pathogenesis remain poorly studied in comparison to their Gram-negative counterparts. The fundamental process of Gram-positive protein secretion, critical for the delivery of virulence factors, is one of these largely understudied physiological facets. My research has focused on post-translocation secretion chaperones in the human Gram-positive pathogens Listeria monocytogenes and Streptococcus pneumoniae so as to better understand the processes underlying protein secretion, folding, and activity following membrane translocation. Defining paradigms of Gram-positive protein secretion will ultimately enable the design of therapeutic strategies that both inhibit virulence factor secretion and increase antibiotic susceptibility by targeting essential exposed components of the bacterial cell surface.