Dr. Bry Directs the Massachusetts Host-Microbiome Center and has held a longstanding interest in host-commensal interactions, particularly through using genetically tenable microbes to probe host responses. Her group actively develops commensal microbial consortia for experimental and clinical applications, including therapeutic uses as immunomodulators, and to provide defenses against gut pathogens. In addition, she oversees a multi-institutional pathogen genomic sequencing program that monitors genomic causes of multi-drug resistance in patient isolates. The program was the first CLIA lab to join the FDA GenomeTrakr program and has developed real-time sequencing and functional studies to define host range and risks for pathogen transmission in carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) through to dynamics of Clostridium difficile infection in hospitalized patients. Dr. Bry did her undergraduate work at Cornell University, studying classical bacterial genetics in Bacillus subtitles. She completed medical and graduate work in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Pathogenesis at Washington University in St. Louis and was the first microbiology student to work in Dr. Jeffery Gordon’s laboratory, developing the host-microbial symbiotic model between Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron and its capacity to induce gut epithelial fucosyltransfases. After completing the Clinical Pathology residency program at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, she was awarded a Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellowship to study mucosal immunology in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Brenner where she defined mucosal and systemic immune responses needed to control infections with attaching and effacing pathogens.