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AMR Seminar: Joseph E. Peters, Cornell University

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Cornell Center for Antimicrobial Resistance Research & Education Fall Seminar Series 2025

Title: Mechanisms of diversity generation in antibiotic resistance islands driven by Tn7 family element

Speaker Bio: Joe Peters is professor and chair of the Department of Microbiology at Cornell University. He started at Cornell as an Assistant Professor in 2002. Prior to coming to Cornell, he received his PhD at the University of Maryland at College Park and trained as a Postdoctoral Associate at the Johns Hopkins Medical School in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics with Nancy Craig. His research focuses on molecular aspects of genome stability in bacteria, primarily as they interface with mobile genetic elements, and especially DNA transposons. Most of this work has been with a specific class of transposons, Tn7 and Tn7 family transposons, that display a high level of control over when and where they move in bacteria. This specific class of DNA transposon is found in 10-40% of bacteria variating between genera and is a major mechanism of transfer of antibiotic resistance and pathogenicity determinants.