Editors for Microbiology and Infectious Disease

We aim to publish studies that provide new insights into fundamental mechanisms, and cell growth and metabolism, in all microbes. We also welcome studies of all types of interactions between microorganisms in communities and between microbes and multicellular organisms, in both pathogenic and commensal interactions, including but not limited to investigations into the microbiome, microbial ecology, mycology, pathology, parasitology, and virology. Read the latest research in this subject area.
All sections

Senior editors

  1. Wendy S Garrett

    Wendy S Garrett

    Senior Editor

    Wendy Garrett is the Melvin J and Geraldine L. Glimcher Associate Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute. Her work explores host-microbiota interactions underlying mucosal immune homeostasis, gastrointestinal inflammatory disorders, and cancer. She graduated from the Yale College; received her MD PhD from Yale University and completed post-graduate training at Harvard.

    Expertise
    Immunology and Inflammation
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Human Biology and Medicine
    Research focus
    host-microbiota interactions
    microbiome
    mucosal immunology
    Competing interests statement
    Wendy Garrett receives funding from the National Institutes of Health, Hoffman-LaRoche, and Groupe Danone. She is a member of the Cell Reports and Journal of Clinical Microbiology editorial boards. She consults for Janssen and serves on the scientific advisory boards of Synlogic and Evelo Biosciences.
  2. Prabhat Jha

    Prabhat Jha

    Senior Editor

    Prabhat Jha has been a key figure in epidemiology and economics of global health for the past decade. He is the University of Toronto Endowed Professor in Disease Control and Canada Research Chair at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and the founding Director of the Centre for Global Health Research at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. Professor Jha is a lead investigator of the Million Death Study in India, which quantifies the causes of premature mortality in over one million homes from 1997–2014 and which examines the contribution of key risk factors such as tobacco, alcohol, diet, and environmental exposures. He is co-investigator of the Disease Control Priorities Network and the author of several influential books on tobacco control, including two that helped enable a global treaty on tobacco control, now signed by over 160 countries. Prior to founding CGHR, Professor Jha served as Senior Scientist for the World Health Organization, where he co-led the work on health and poverty for the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health. Earlier, he headed the World Bank team responsible for developing the Second National HIV/AIDS Control Program in India. His advisory work has included the Government of South Africa on its national health insurance plan, and the United States Institute of Medicine on global health. Notable recognitions include the Order of Canada (2013) for contributions to global health, the Luther Terry Award for Research on Tobacco Control (2012), The Globe and Mail 25 Transformational Canadians (2010), Top 40 Canadians under Age 40 Award (2004), the Ontario Premier’s Research Excellence Award (2004), and Gold Medal from the Poland Health Promotion Foundation (2000). Professor Jha holds an MD from the University of Manitoba and a DPhil from Oxford University, where he studied as a Canadian Rhodes Scholar.

    Expertise
    Epidemiology and Global Health
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Human Biology and Medicine
    Research focus
    epidemiology
    global health
    infectious disease and population dynamics
    randomized controlled trials
    Competing interests statement
    Prabhat Jha has received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Canadian International Development Research Agency, Canadian International Development Agency, the International Science and Technology Program of the Canadian government, and the US National Institutes of Health. He serves on the editorial board of Demography India. He advises several agencies and the Canadian government on epidemiology, disease control strategies, and tobacco control, and serves on the advisory board of the UK Biobank.
  3. Wenhui Li

    Wenhui Li

    Senior Editor

    Wenhui Li is an Investigator of the National Institute of Biological Sciences (NIBS), Beijing, China. He received a bachelor’s degree in medicine from the Medical School of Lanzhou University in 1994 and his PhD from the Peking Union Medical College & Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in 2001. After completing his postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School, Li joined NIBS as an Assistant Investigator in 2007 and rose to the rank of Investigator in 2015. His team at NIBS identified a liver bile acids transporter (sodium taurocholate co-transporting polypeptide, NTCP) as a functional receptor for Hepatitis B and D virus. Li’s research interest has been focusing on the molecular mechanisms of viral infections: currently his laboratory combines virology, biochemistry, immunology, and chemical biology to investigate molecular mechanisms of HBV/HDV infection.

    Expertise
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    virus infection
    hepatitis b/d virus
    receptor
    antivirals
    Competing interests statement
    Wenhui Li receives funding from the Ministry of Science and Technology, National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Science and Technology Bureau of Beijing Municipal Government. He serves as a member of the editorial boards of Chin J Virol (2011–), Virologica Sinica (2013–), and J Biol Chem (2016–).

  4. Gisela Storz

    Senior Editor

    Gisela Storz has been an Investigator in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Bethesda, Maryland since 1991. She obtained a BA in Biochemistry from the University of Colorado in 1984 and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1988, where she studied the bacterial response to oxidative stress working with Bruce Ames. Her current work is focused on understanding gene regulation in response to environmental signals and elucidating the roles of small RNAs and small proteins of less than 50 amino acids in these regulatory networks. Dr. Storz was the recipient of the American Society for Microbiology Eli Lilly Award and is a member of the American Academy of Microbiology, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and US National Academy of Sciences.

    Expertise
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Chromosomes and Gene Expression
    Research focus
    small noncoding RNAs
    oxidative stress
    gene regulation
    bacterial physiology
    regulatory RNAs
    Experimental organism
    E. coli
    Competing interests statement
    Gisela Storz is employed by the Intramural Program of the National Institutes of Health. She served on the Scientific Advisory Board of Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology. In addition to being a Senior Editor for eLife, she is an Editor at RNA and on the Editorial Boards of mBio, Annual Reviews of Genetics and Microbiology Spectrum.

Reviewing editors

  1. Paul Rainey

    Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Germany

    Expertise
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Plant Biology
    Research focus
    adaptive radiation
    evolution of individuality
    evolutionary genetics
    ecological genetics
    emergence of infectious diseases

  2. Phil Newmark

    Morgridge Institute for Research, United States

    Expertise
    Developmental Biology
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    Planarian
    regeneration
    Schistosoma
    germ cells

  3. Jeremy Luban

    University of Massachusetts Medical School, United States

    Expertise
    Immunology and Inflammation
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    viral replication
    pathogenesis
    immunity

  4. Christine Clayton

    Zentrum fuer Molekulare Biologie der Universitaet Heidelberg (ZMBH), Germany

    Expertise
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Human Biology and Medicine
    Research focus
    trypanosomes
    mRNA degradation
    RNA-binding proteins

  5. Kim Orth

    University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, United States

    Expertise
    Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    Virulence factors
    Type III secretion
    pathogenesis
    autophagy
    Experimental organism
    Vibrio spp

  6. Blake Wiedenheft

    Montana State University, United States

    Expertise
    Chromosomes and Gene Expression
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    bacteriophages
    genome editing
    host-parasite interactions

  7. Flaminia Catteruccia

    Harvard School of Public Health, United States

    Expertise
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    vector biology
    malaria
    vector-plasmodium interactions
    reproductive biology
    Experimental organism
    anopheles gambiae

  8. Kevin Verstrepen

    KU Leuven, Belgium

    Expertise
    Evolutionary Biology
    Genetics and Genomics
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    genomics
    systems biology
    yeast genetics
    Experimental organism
    S. cerevisiae

  9. Frank Kirchhoff

    Ulm University Medical Center, Germany

    Expertise
    Epidemiology and Global Health
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    functional virology
    origin, evolution and pathogenicity of HIV-1
    HIV

  10. Axel A Brakhage

    Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Hans-Knöll-Institut, Germany

    Expertise
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    infection biology of fungi
    microbial secondary metabolism
    microbial communication
    biotechnology
    transcription factors
    Experimental organism
    aspergillus
    myxococcus xanthus
    macrophages
    neutrophils

  11. Jon Clardy

    Harvard Medical School, United States

    Expertise
    Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    Ecology
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    microbial secondary metabolism
    chemical communications
    biosensors
    chemical biology
    microbial ecology and evolution

  12. Eduardo Franco

    McGill University, Canada

    Expertise
    Cancer Biology
    Epidemiology and Global Health
    Human Biology and Medicine
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    human biology and medicine
    microbiology and infectious disease
    cancer epidemiology and prevention
    screening
    human papillomavirus infection

  13. Stephen P Goff

    Columbia University, United States

    Expertise
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    retrovirus replication
    virus assembly

  14. Jean Greenberg

    University of Chicago, United States

    Expertise
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Plant Biology
    Research focus
    local and long distance signalling in innate immunity
    plant-microbe interactions
    bacterial pathogens
    Experimental organism
    arabidopsis thaliana
    N. benthamiana
    tomato
    pseudomonas

  15. Peter Greenberg

    University of Washington, United States

    Expertise
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    microbe-microbe communication

  16. Mark Jit

    London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and Public Health England, United Kingdom

    Expertise
    Epidemiology and Global Health
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    immunisation
    health economics
    mathematical modelling of infectious diseases

  17. Bavesh Kana

    University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

    Expertise
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    tuberculosis
    differentially culturable bacteria
    mycobacteria
    actinobacteria
    cell wall
    peptidoglycan
    peptidoglycan hydrolases
    amidase
    cell division
    cell surface remodelling
    dormancy
    latency
    Experimental organism
    mycobacterium tuberculosis
    mycobacterium smegmatis

  18. Karla Kirkegaard

    Stanford University School of Medicine, United States

    Expertise
    Chromosomes and Gene Expression
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    drug resistance
    viral evolution
    dominant genes
    Experimental organism
    human
    mouse
    viruses

  19. David M Knipe

    Harvard Medical School, United States

    Expertise
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    DNA viruses
    epigenetic regulation
    latent infection
    innate and intrinsic immunity
    vaccines

  20. Urszula Krzych

    Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, United States

    Expertise
    Epidemiology and Global Health
    Immunology and Inflammation
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    malaria
    adaptive immunity
    vaccines

  21. Michael Laub

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States

    Expertise
    Cell Biology
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    bacterial development
    bacterial systems biology
    signal transduction

  22. Elena Levashina

    Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Germany

    Expertise
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    malaria ecology
    mosquito immune system
    Experimental organism
    P. falciparum

  23. Marc Lipsitch

    Harvard School of Public Health, United States

    Expertise
    Epidemiology and Global Health
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    mathematical modeling
    evolution of pathogens
    epidemiology of infectious diseases
    Experimental organism
    streptococcus pneumoniae

  24. Tam Mignot

    Aix-Marseille University, France

    Expertise
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Physics of Living Systems
    Research focus
    signal transduction
    motility
    bacterial development
    bacterial cell biology
    Experimental organism
    myxococcus xanthus

  25. Dianne Newman

    California Institute of Technology, United States

    Expertise
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    evolution of photosynthesis
    physiological functions of redox active "secondary metabolites"
    Experimental organism
    R. palustris
    P. aeruginosa

  26. Thorsten Nurnberger

    University of Tübingen, Germany

    Expertise
    Cell Biology
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Plant Biology
    Research focus
    innate immunity
    plant-microbe interactions
    plant immunity
    Experimental organism
    arabidopsis thaliana

  27. Antonis Rokas

    Vanderbilt University, United States

    Expertise
    Evolutionary Biology
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    phylogenomics
    genome evolution in fungi and animals
    evolution of fungal secondary/specialized metabolic pathways
    evolution of mammalian pregnancy
    Experimental organism
    fungi

  28. Viviana Simon

    The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, United States

    Expertise
    Epidemiology and Global Health
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    viral-host interactions
    retroviral restriction factors
    HIV drug resistance

  29. Dominique Soldati-Favre

    University of Geneva, Switzerland

    Expertise
    Human Biology and Medicine
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    host-parasite interactions
    apicomplexa biology
    motility
    Experimental organism
    toxoplasma gondii
    plasmodium

  30. Wesley Sundquist

    University of Utah, United States

    Expertise
    Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
    Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Research focus
    virus-host interactions
    retroviruses
    HIV
    Experimental organism
    human cells

About sections

  1. About eLife
  2. Aims and scope
  3. Editors and people
  4. Peer review
  5. Openness
  6. Innovation
  7. Early-careers
Back to top