Karen Usdin

Karen Usdin, Ph.D., is a Principal Investigator for the Section on Gene Structure and Disease in the Laboratory of Cell and Molecular Biology at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).

Posts By This Author

Why Studying Bacteria Matters

I have been thinking a lot recently about how the tools we use in our work have improved so dramatically in the last few decades and how this is mostly down to the frequently disparaged study of microbes. While everyone can get behind studying bacteria that cause life-threatening diseases like typhoid fever and cholera, I think that it is often harder to convince people of the value of studying ordinary and sometimes obscure bacteria that do not directly affect human health. However, over the years, such studies have revolutionized many aspects of our lives.

thermophillic bacteria at Yellowstone

This page was last updated on Thursday, January 20, 2022