Victor Nizet

About

Victor Nizet, M.D., is a Distinguished Professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and also serves as Professor, Division Chief, and Vice Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the School of Medicine. His laboratory focuses on understanding the fundamental mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis and the innate immune system, with a special emphasis on invasive and antibiotic-resistant pathogens. His research involves discovering and characterizing bacterial virulence factors related to cytotoxicity, adherence, invasion, inflammation, molecular mimicry, and resistance to immunologic clearance. Additionally, he investigates host factors such as antimicrobial peptides, leukocyte surface receptors, signal transduction pathways, and transcription factors involved in defense against invasive bacterial infections. His work has led to the development of novel treatment strategies, including targeted neutralization of bacterial virulence phenotypes, pharmacologic boosting of innate immune cell function, drug repurposing, and innovative nano therapeutic and vaccine approaches. Dr. Nizet has made significant contributions to elucidating the genetic basis and mechanisms of virulence factors in human bacterial pathogens and the functions of the mammalian innate immune system, highlighting strategies for enhancing phagocytic defenses against drug-resistant pathogens.

Research topics

• Biology
• Microbiology
• Medicine
• Immunology
• Computational biology
• Genetics
• Chemistry
• Internal medicine
• Bioinformatics
• Physiology

Selected publications

• Global chemical effects of the microbiome include new bile-acid conjugations

  Nature · 2020 · 581 citations

  DOI

• Nanoparticle-modified microrobots for in vivo antibiotic delivery to treat acute bacterial pneumonia

  Nature Materials · 2022 · 293 citations

  DOI

• Exploration of Bacterial Bottlenecks and Streptococcus pneumoniae Pathogenesis by CRISPRi-Seq

  Cell Host & Microbe · 2020 · 144 citations

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Mortality Risk Profiling of Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia by Multi-omic Serum Analysis Reveals Early Predictive and Pathogenic Signatures

  Cell · 2020 · 121 citations

  DOI

• TLR4 signaling and macrophage inflammatory responses are dampened by GIV/Girdin

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2020 · 103 citations

  Sensing of pathogens by Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) induces an inflammatory response; controlled responses confer immunity but uncontrolled responses cause harm. Here we define how a multimodular scaffold, GIV (a.k.a. Girdin), titrates such inflammatory response in macrophages. Upon challenge with either live microbes or microbe-derived lipopolysaccharides (a ligand for TLR4), macrophages with GIV mount a more tolerant (hypo-reactive) transcriptional response and suppress proinflammatory cytokin…

  DOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01AI052453

  NIH · $5.3M · 2018

• NIH Grant R01AI096837

  NIH · $2.7M · 2017

• GAS Switch from Colonizing Bacterium to Invasive Pathogen

  NIH · $3.8M · 2008–2020

Frequent coauthors

• Jason N. Cole

  Cidara Therapeutics (United States)

  119 shared

• George Sakoulas

  University of California, San Diego

  103 shared

• Samira Dahesh

  102 shared

• Mary E. Hensler

  University of California, San Diego

  95 shared

• Satoshi Uchiyama

  National Cancer Center Hospital East

  86 shared

• Richard L. Gallo

  University of California, San Diego

  85 shared

• Joshua Olson

  University of Detroit Mercy

  81 shared

• Maren von Köckritz‐Blickwede

  University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation

  81 shared

Education

• Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship

  Seattle Children's Hospital & University of Washington

  1997

• Pediatric Residency & Chief Residency

  Boston Children's Hospital & Harvard University

  1993

• M.D.

  Stanford University School of Medicine

  1989

• B.S., Biology

  Reed College

  1984

Awards & honors

• American Lung Associate Career Investigator Award (2004)
• American Heart Association Established Investigator Award (2…
• American Society for Clinical Investigation (2006)
• E. Mead Johnson Award for Research in Pediatrics (2008)
• American Asthma Foundation Senior Investigator Award (2008)

Similar researchers at University of California, San Diego

• Ruben Abagyanh-118
• William Gerwickh-114
• Bradley S. Mooreh-112