Faculty/Staff
Suzana Salcedo, Associate Professor, Ph.D. (she/her)
After studying Microbiology in Porto, Portugal, where I grew up, I moved to London, where I discovered the incredible world of bacterial pathogenesis in David Holden’s lab at Imperial College. After graduating in 2003, I moved to Marseille in the south of France to join the team of Jean-Pierre Gorvel and decipher how Brucella hides inside cells to cause disease. In 2012, I was awarded a young principal investigator grant, so I joined MMSB in Lyon to launch my team on Brucella and multi-drug resistant bacteria such as Acinetobacter baumannii. As I love new adventures, in the summer of 2023, I packed up my lab and moved to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to continue these projects at the School of Veterinary Medicine.
I am passionate about bacteria but also discovering different cultures, striving for equity, and advocating for work-life balance. I am also a mother to two wonderful young lads. I love spending time with them and my husband, hanging out with family and friends, hiking and traveling.
Postdocs
Varadendra Mazumdar
I completed my Ph.D. at the National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (NIAB), India, where I focused on Brucella macrophage interactions and identified host factors involved in bacterial invasion and intracellular replication.
To further explore host Brucella interactions, I joined Suzana’s team. My current research focuses on how pathogen-driven NAD⁺ metabolism modulates host immune signaling, leading to bacterial virulence.
Outside the lab, I enjoy photography, playing table tennis, and trekking.
Graduate students
Cody Hargadon
I am a PhD student in the Cellular and Molecular Biology program with a background in marine symbiosis (BS, MS, UC San Diego). My research focuses on the initial molecular interactions between microbes and hosts that dictate a pathogenic outcome. In the Salcedo Lab, I am studying the proteins that Brucella employs during infection to control both the immune response and critical cellular functions in order to survive and replicate. Specifically, I am asking:
What are bacteria producing that control immune components to establish discrete infection?
What host cellular pathways are engaged during states of mutualistic or pathogenic interactions?
What molecular context dictates the evolution from pathogens to symbionts, and vice versa?
Outside the lab, I enjoy thinking about lab, missing the lab, and how much I want to be imaging my samples in the lab. Otherwise, I swim, play volleyball, read, and drink good coffee.
Undergraduate students
Evie Hansen
My interests include anything animal-related, especially when it comes to genetics and disease.
I love microbiology and looking at the inner workings of the microscopic world around us.
Outside of science, I love to read (especially mystery books) and watercolor or draw.
I also love to run along lake Mendota when the weather is nice.
Latest graduate!
Charline Debruyne
After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in 2017 in Anthropology with a specialization in Paleoanthropology and Archeology in Montreal, Canada, I decided to return to my interest in bacterial pathogens and how the diseases develop. For that, I did a BSc in Genetics and Cell Biology, followed by an M.Sc. degree in Infectiology in Lyon, France, where I did a 6-month internship in Suzana Salcedo’s lab in 2021. I was awarded a Fondation pour la Recherche Médical (FRM) scholarship to fund my PhD thatfocuses on deciphering the pathogenesis of specific clinical isolates of Acinetobacter baumannii.
In my downtime, I love discovering new places and the outdoors (nothing beats a good hike). But also going out with friends, getting lost in a good book and cooking.
Alumni
Former UW-Madison students
Landon Hodge, SVM summer scholar program
Benjamin Tobias, undergraduate
Former PhD students
Lison Cancade-Veyre, Postdoc at University of Cambridge, UK
Morgane Roussin, Scientist at Sanofi, Lyon
Arthur Louche, R&D biologist at Molsid, Lyon
Jean-Baptiste Luizet, Site Director, LAS Agora, Lyon
Stephanie Gagné, Project Coordinator, Medpace, Lyon
Paul Imbert, Microscopy Facility Manager, Queen Mary University of London, UK
Former Postdocs
Thais Lacerda: Quality Control Specialist, Novartis, Austria
Guillermo Repizo: Staff Scientist IBR-CONICET, Rosario, Argentina
Tristan Rubio: Post-doc at University Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Former research assistants
Amandine Blanco, IRIM Montpellier who also defended her PhD in 2024!
Chloé Dias, PhD student at Infinity, Toulouse
Orane Chabiron, AI at Boehringer Ingelheim, Lyon
Julie Raymond, IE at Institut Gennomique Fonctionelle, Montpellier
Laurence Cluzeau, AI at Accugenix, Charles River Laboratories, Lyon