Dr. Cressida Madigan

Biography

Cressida Madigan earned her Ph.D. in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from Harvard Medical School, where she studied tuberculosis and lipid chemistry in Branch Moody's lab at Brigham and Women's Hospital. She then became an NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow, focusing on infection biology in zebrafish under the mentorship of Lalita Ramakrishnan at the University of Washington. In addition to her postdoctoral training, she completed work at UCLA laboratories including those of Alvaro Sagasti, Robert Modlin, and Stephen Smale. In 2018, she joined the Molecular Biology faculty at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). Her research lab utilizes genetic and imaging techniques to explore the mechanisms of infection-mediated inflammation and neurological injury, with a particular emphasis on the mycobacterial pathogens responsible for leprosy and tuberculosis. The zebrafish model allows real-time observations of infections occurring in areas that are typically difficult to access in humans, thus providing insights into mycobacterial infections affecting the central nervous system, which can lead to severe neurological damage and stigmatizing deformities in patients. Madigan aims to identify pathways involved in central nervous system inflammation to develop host-directed therapies for these diseases.

Research Interests