Dr. Lindsay Kalan

Biography

Dr. Lindsay Kalan is an Assistant Professor at the UW Comprehensive Diabetes Center, University of Wisconsin–Madison, specializing in Medical Microbiology and Immunology. Her primary research focuses on investigating the polymicrobial environment in chronic non-healing wounds, particularly diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs). With tens of millions affected and an estimated cost of 95 billion dollars per year, the mortality rate associated with these wounds exceeds 50%. Dr. Kalan aims to understand community-level interactions among microbes and their negative impact on host responses which can lead to impaired wound healing and limb amputation. Her laboratory employs a combination of traditional microbiological techniques, cutting-edge high-throughput sequencing, and computational modeling to analyze disease progression and the perturbations caused by bacterial and fungal species on wound healing outcomes. Her research utilizes human clinical specimens, in vitro experiments, and animal models to explore microbial community dynamics, resistance to treatments, and host immune responses. Through translational bioinformatics, she models the associations between host responses and the microbiome, with the ultimate goal of making significant advancements in the treatment of DFUs. Dr. Kalan hopes to identify biological markers that can be used to predict wound healing trajectories, thereby significantly reducing healing times and improving the quality of life for millions.

Research Interests