Margaret (Peg) Riley
The focus of our research is in the area of microbial evolution - namely antimicrobial resistance evolution - and drug development.
Current Research
Microbes run the world. It’s that simple. Although we cannot usually see them, microbes are essential for every part of human life—indeed all life on Earth. Every process in the biosphere is touched by the seemingly endless capacity of microbes to transform the world around them. The focus of our research is to explore this unseen biological diversity from a molecular perspective. We employ comparative genomics, experimental evolution and population genetics methods to learn about how microbes interact, how they evolve, and how they can be used to solve human health challenges. More recently we have refocused our lab effort in the area of drug discovery and development. However, we use our understanding of microbial ecology and evolution to identify drugs that are less “resistable” by the pathogens, that more specifically target the pathogens and leave the majority of the microbiome untouched, and that are far less toxic than most conventional antibiotics.
Learn more at www.bio.umass.edu/biology/riley/node/4
Academic Background
- PhD Harvard University, 1991
