He received his PhD from the University of Georgia studying symbiotic host-microbe interactions. He transitioned to his work on the human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Nebraska Medical Center studying biofilms. His current work, primarily on MRSA isolates, started as a screen for novel regulatory factors controlling MRSA virulence factor production. His lab focuses on fatty acid metabolism in virulence as a potential host recognition signal. These studies are uncovering a previously uncharacterized enzyme in many bacteria and are dissecting the molecular mechanism linking fatty acid metabolism and skin infections.