Rate My Professor Natasha Dean

Dr. Dean's research focuses primarily on microbial ecology, with an emphasis on microbial diversity (prevalence and distribution) and microbial behavior. Her lab investigates the role that enteric microbiota may play in the aging process, using osteoporosis as a model of aging. Research into the human microbiome indicates that intestinal microbes affect several body systems primarily through inflammation, leading to chronic diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes. Because osteoporosis can also be considered a chronic inflammatory disease, this model elucidates the effects that enteric microbes may have on human systems distant from the digestive tract. The lab examines the effects of secreted bacterial proteins on an osteosarcoma cell line, looking specifically at bone deposition and mineralization. This research has implications in healthcare and health disparities for the elderly and builds on the role microbes play in musculoskeletal diseases. Additional research areas include resistance to bacteriophage infection, bacterial evolution and bacteriophage resistance, and characterization of abortive infection proteins and their role in disease mechanisms. Dr. Dean participates in the SEA-PHAGES program, teaching phage discovery and bioinformatics. She has received the Biology Teacher of the Year award from La Sierra University in 2006 and 2013, was an invited participant in the WEBS (Women Evolving the Sciences) program in 2013, and received the ASM Student Travel Grant from the American Society for Microbiology in 2003.