Professor JD Sauer has been selected as a Vilas Associate, a prestigious award that recognizes new and ongoing research of the highest quality and significance. The Vilas Associates Competition is highly competitive, with recipients chosen by divisional Research Committees based on the strength and impact of a detailed research proposal.
As a Vilas Associate, Sauer will receive up to two-ninths of research salary support for the summers of 2026 and 2027, along with a $12,500 flexible research fund in each of the two fiscal years. The award is granted only once to any faculty member, underscoring the distinction of this recognition.
Sauer’s research program focuses on bacterial pathogenesis and immunology, with a particular emphasis on understanding how intracellular pathogens interact with and evade host immune defenses. His lab uses Listeria monocytogenes, a Gram-positive foodborne pathogen, as a model organism to investigate the dynamic “tug of war” between invading bacteria and the host immune system. Notably, infection with L. monocytogenes leads to the development of strong, long-lasting cell-mediated immunity, making it a powerful system for studying immune protection.
Through genetic approaches applied to both pathogen and host, Sauer’s lab identifies the bacterial factors that promote disease and the host pathways that drive immunity. Using transposon-based random mutagenesis, his team has uncovered key roles for bacterial central metabolism and cell wall biosynthesis in enabling L. monocytogenes to survive within normally bactericidal macrophages. This work has also revealed bacterial determinants that alter innate immune recognition, including pathways involving the inflammasome and cytosolic type I interferon signaling.
In addition, Sauer’s group employs well-established ex vivo and in vivo murine models of listeriosis to examine how specific innate immune signaling pathways shape acute infection outcomes and the development of long-term immunity. By combining bacterial mutants with host cells or mice lacking defined immune signaling molecules, the lab dissects how inflammasome activation and type I interferon responses influence host defense.
Sauer earned his B.S. in Biology from Cornell University and completed his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Michigan in the laboratory of Dr. Michele Swanson. He then conducted postdoctoral research with Dr. Daniel Portnoy at the University of California, Berkeley. His long-term research goals include advancing fundamental understanding of host–pathogen interactions and further developing Listeria monocytogenes as a platform for immunotherapeutic applications.
The Vilas Associate award will provide critical support for Sauer’s ongoing research program and enable continued progress toward uncovering the mechanisms that govern infection, immunity, and immune-based therapeutic strategies.
More information on the Vilas Associates Competition:
https://research.wisc.edu/professorships-and-faculty-fellowships/vilas-associates/