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Tessa Andermann, MD, MPH is an assistant professor in the UNC Division of Infectious Diseases whose research focuses on the impact of intestinal microbiome-host interactions on infection complications in patients with hematologic malignancies. She has received both NIH and foundational funding to study the precision characterization of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) gene dynamics in bloodstream infection risk after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT). In this study, she will investigate the collection of AMR genes in the gut microbiome known as the resistome, using short-read shotgun sequencing and long-read Nanopore sequencing to investigate AMR dynamics over time during and after transplant. She will use combined novel sequencing technology and culturomics to identify predictors of horizontal gene transfer events within the resistome and how these may impact infectious risk in patients undergoing HCT. She will also use her expertise in shotgun metagenomic sequencing of the intestinal microbiome of patients with cancer towards a multi-disciplinary approach to understand human-microbiome interactions that shape infectious and other complications in immunocompromised patients. During her postdoctoral training at Stanford University, Dr. Andermann established a biorepository of stool samples collected from patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT) which at the present time contains more than 1900 samples from over 800 patients. Her current projects include: investigating the role of the gut antimicrobial “resistome” in the development of bloodstream and other infections with multi-drug-resistant organisms in patients with hematologic malignancies; developing microbial predictors of therapeutic efficacy and therapy-related gastrointestinal complications following administration of cellular and other immunotherapies in patients with cancer; and using the intestinal microbiome as a tool to inform antimicrobial stewardship in immunocompromised patients.