Biography

Dr. Douglas Heithoff is a Project Scientist in the Marth Laboratory at the Center for Nanomedicine and Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute at the University of California at Santa Barbara.  He obtained his Ph.D. in 1999 from UCSB in the laboratory of Prof. Michael Mahan, studying the role of the DNA adenine methylase in bacterial virulence and developing a cross-protective vaccine against Salmonella.  Dr. Heithoff joined the Marth laboratory in 2015 to study the role of the hepatocyte Ashwell-Morell receptor (AMR) in the modulation of sepsis caused by bacterial pathogens with an emphasis on the identification of host mechanisms that modulate coagulopathy and inflammation.  His recent discoveries include the identification of marked differences in the roles of the AMR in sepsis caused by the Gram-positive pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae versus the Gram-negative pathogen Salmonella Typhimurium, suggesting that sepsis is not a single disease process but may be stratified by host responses to different pathogens.