Erin Carlson, PhD

• Chemical Biology: protein activity assays, imaging, biochemical methods
• Organic Chemistry: inhibitor and probe synthesis, natural product discovery
• Analytical & Bioanalytical Chemistry: proteomics, mass spectrometry, separations
• Nanoscience & Materials Chemistry: organismal response to materials, corona formation

The Carlson Group uses tools from many fields ranging from organic and analytical chemistry to chemical biology and biochemistry to investigate microorganisms. These tiny cells are capable of living in nearly every niche on our planet, including human hosts. We are fascinated by their ability to adapt to such a diversity of conditions and use tools from all across the disciplines of chemistry to understand how this is possible. Current projects focus the study of bacterial signaling and antibiotic development, investigation of how bacteria build their unique cell wall structure, and microbial response to metals, such as those found in nanomaterials.

Carlson Lab Group

• Lembke H. K., Nauta K. M., Hunter R. C., and Carlson, E. E. Evaluating the Link between Efflux Pump Expression and Motility Phenotypes in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Treated with Virulence Inhibitors. ACS Infect. Dis. 2025. (Article ASAP - DOI: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.5c00053)
• Shirley J. D., Gillingham J. R., Nauta K. M., Diwakar S., and Carlson E. E. k_inact/K_I Value Determination for Penicillin-Binding Proteins in Live Cells. ACS Infect. Dis. 2024 10 (12), 4137-4145.
• Fihn C. A., Lembke H. K., Gaulin J., Bouchard P., Villarreal A. R., Penningroth M. R., Crone K. K., Vogt G. A., Gilbertsen A. J., Ayotte Y., Coutinho de Oliveira L., Serrano-Wu M. H., Drouin N., Hung D. T., Hunter R. C., Carlson E. E., Evaluation of expanded 2-aminobenzothiazole library as inhibitors of a model histidine kinase and virulence suppressors in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Bioorganic Chemistry. 2024. 153 (107840).
• Espinasse, A.,† Goswami, M.,† Yang, J., Vorasin, O., Ji, Y.* and Carlson, E. E.* Targeting multidrug resistant Staphylococcus infections with bacterial histidine kinase inhibitors. Chem Sci, 2023, 14, 5028-5037.
• Lembke, H. K.,† Espinasse, A.,† Hanson, M. G., Grimme, C. J., Tan, Z., Reinke, T. M. and Carlson, E. E. Cationic Polymers Enable Internalization of Negatively Charged Chemical Probe into Bacteria. ACS Chem. Biol., 2023, 18, 2063–2072.