Satish Nair’s lab focuses on understanding the basis for regulation of bacteria by small molecule natural products. His laboratory uses classical biochemical and microbiological techniques, in combination with biophysical methods (in particular X-ray crystallography) to decipher how microbes utilize small molecules to establish ecological niches, and combat against the colonization of antagonistic species that may compete for limited resources. This research focus is predicated upon the notion that knowledge of such interactions drives the discovery and development of natural products that can be used to combat the growth of pathogenic bacteria.
Nair is the Head and I.C. Gunsalus Chair in the Department of Biochemistry, and he serves as the Director at the Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology, the Co-Director of the Macromolecular Cryoem and Microed Facility, and an affiliate of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology and the Materials Research Laboratory. Nair received his BS from Brown University, his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, and completed his postdoctoral research at Rockefeller University.