{"id":6309,"date":"2021-02-15T11:13:08","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T16:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/?post_type=directory&#038;p=6309"},"modified":"2025-10-13T16:16:53","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T20:16:53","slug":"rita-tamayo-phd","status":"publish","type":"directory","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/directory\/rita-tamayo-phd\/","title":{"rendered":"Rita Tamayo, PhD"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Research Summary<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Dr. Tamayo is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Her research interests lie in the mechanisms used by pathogens to sense, respond, and adapt to changing host environments. She has studied diverse intestinal pathogens: <i>Salmonella enterica<\/i> serovar Typhimurium, Vibrio cholerae, and <i>Clostridioides difficile<\/i>. Through this and other work, she has gained broad expertise in bacterial genetics, molecular biology, second messenger signaling, protein biochemistry, RNA biochemistry, high-throughput sequencing, and animal models of disease. A central goal of her laboratory\u2019s current research is to determine how <i>C. difficile<\/i> regulates gene expression. Her group has played a vital role in characterizing the ability of <i>C. difficile<\/i> to generate phenotypic heterogeneity through phase variation. Her lab discovered that <i>C. difficile<\/i> phase varies flagella and the toxins required for disease development. During these studies, they noted that <i>C. difficile<\/i> generates two colony morphologies, rough and smooth, and determined that this bacterium can reversibly switch between the two morphotypes. The two variants differ in other phenotypes, including cell length, cell chaining, surface motility, biofilm formation, and virulence in hamsters. The research has sought to determine the biological relevance and the molecular basis of these phenomena.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CGIBD Focus Area(s):\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Microbiome<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pilot and Feasibility Award 2010\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Collaborators:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Azcarate, Magness<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Research Summary Dr. Tamayo is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Her research interests lie in the mechanisms used by pathogens to sense, respond, and adapt to changing host environments. She has studied diverse intestinal pathogens: Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, Vibrio cholerae, and Clostridioides difficile. Through this and other work, she has &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/directory\/rita-tamayo-phd\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Rita Tamayo, PhD\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2312,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-6309","directory","type-directory","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Rita Tamayo, PhD | Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/directory\/rita-tamayo-phd\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rita Tamayo, PhD | Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Research Summary Dr. Tamayo is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Her research interests lie in the mechanisms used by pathogens to sense, respond, and adapt to changing host environments. She has studied diverse intestinal pathogens: Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, Vibrio cholerae, and Clostridioides difficile. Through this and other work, she has &hellip; Read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/directory\/rita-tamayo-phd\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-13T20:16:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/466\/2017\/10\/tamayo-rita.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"171\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"243\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@unc_cgibd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/directory\/rita-tamayo-phd\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/directory\/rita-tamayo-phd\/\",\"name\":\"Rita Tamayo, PhD | Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/directory\/rita-tamayo-phd\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/directory\/rita-tamayo-phd\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/466\/2017\/10\/tamayo-rita.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-15T16:13:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-13T20:16:53+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/directory\/rita-tamayo-phd\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/directory\/rita-tamayo-phd\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/directory\/rita-tamayo-phd\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/466\/2017\/10\/tamayo-rita.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/466\/2017\/10\/tamayo-rita.jpeg\",\"width\":171,\"height\":243,\"caption\":\"Rita Tamayo\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/directory\/rita-tamayo-phd\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Rita Tamayo, PhD\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/\",\"name\":\"Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/466\/2017\/06\/cgibd_logo-e1558013708733.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/466\/2017\/06\/cgibd_logo-e1558013708733.png\",\"width\":292,\"height\":195,\"caption\":\"Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/unc_cgibd\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rita Tamayo, PhD | Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgibd\/directory\/rita-tamayo-phd\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rita Tamayo, PhD | Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease","og_description":"Research Summary Dr. Tamayo is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. 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