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Shelley M. Payne is a Professor and Director of the LaMontagne Center for Infectious Disease at the University of Texas at Austin. She holds the Marie Betzner Morrow Centennial Chair in Molecular Biosciences and is a Distinguished Teaching Professor. Dr. Payne's research focuses on the genetics and regulation of iron acquisition systems and virulence factors in intestinal pathogens, particularly Shigella flexneri and Vibrio cholerae. Her work integrates biochemistry and genetics to determine the essential roles of metals like iron and manganese in microbial virulence and transport mechanisms. She actively investigates the bacterial Feo system of ferrous iron transport and employs in vitro models alongside genetic analyses to explore the impact of host lipids and carbon metabolism on the pathogenesis of S. flexneri. Additionally, she studies interspecies interactions between S. flexneri and normal members of the human gut microbiota to assess their influence on bacterial growth and virulence. Another aspect of her research examines the environmental regulation of critical virulence factors, focusing on the RNA binding protein CsrA in V. cholerae.
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