Our Team

Jennifer Gaddy, PhD

Principal Investigator

Jennifer Gaddy, PhD

Associate Professor of Medicine and Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology
Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Dr. Gaddy's research focuses on how the host responds to infection of the reproductive tract, specifically in the context of pregnancy.   

Her latest work demonstrates that the bacterial pathogen Group B Streptococcus can highjack placental macrophage cells as a Trojan horse to ascend the gravid reproductive tract and cross the placenta to infect the developing fetus.  Dr. Gaddy’s current research program seeks to understand the host and environmental factors that contribute to susceptibility to perinatal infections and also to elucidate the antimicrobial molecules produced in human breast milk.   

Dr. Gaddy brings expertise in bacterial pathogenesis, innate immunity, and reproductive immunology and she utilizes cutting-edge techniques such as high-resolution imaging modalities (including electron microscopy), primary cell and tissue models, preclinical animal models of disease, and multi-omics techniques in her research.  

She has authored over 110 peer-reviewed manuscripts (with an H-index of 40 on Google Scholar) and is the Director of the Pre3 Initiative (Preventing Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes and Prematurity) and the Director of Infectious Disease Research in the Women’s Reproductive Health Research Center at VUMC. 

For updates on Dr. Gaddy's latest published research click here.

Lab Members

Walter Avila

Walter Avila is a graduate scholar from Fisk University in the Gaddy lab. His master's thesis work focuses on how CadD, a metal homeostasis virulence factor, modifies the perinatal pathogen Group B Streptococcus' pathogenesis and interactions with the vaginal microbiota.

Kensley Horner

Kensley Horner is a graduate scholar from Fisk University in the Gaddy Lab.  Her master's thesis work focuses on how the control of virulence regulator (CovR) is involved in Group B Streptococcus pathogenesis and metal homeostasis.   

Sabrina K. Spicer, PhD

Dr. Sabrina Spicer is post-doctoral fellow in the Gaddy Lab. Dr. Spicer is an expert in chemical biology whose research interests focus on human milk oligosaccharide biology, antibiotic resistance mechanisms, and host-pathogen modeling. She is currently investigating the utility of human milk oligosaccharides as adjuvants against pan- and multi-drug resistant strains of Acinetobacter baumannii. 

Julie Talbert 

Julie Talbert is a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry who is co-mentored by Dr. Gaddy. Julie’s thesis work focuses on multi-omics approaches to studying host and pathogen responses to exposures to human milk oligosaccharides and investigations of microbe-microbe interactions of the reproductive tract.

Riya Chinni 

Riya Chinni is an undergraduate scholar in the Gaddy lab. Her research immersion project focuses on understanding how micronutrients (such as metal ions) influence the perinatal pathogen Group B Streptococcus with respect to growth, viability, and biofilm formation.