Caitlin Lee Williams
Assistant Professor of Biology
Degrees Held
Ph.D, Emerging Inf. Diseases, USU
BS Biochem, University of Richmond
Office Location: 101 Blocker Hall
Phone: 757-455-3361
Email: cwilliams@vwu.edu
Department/s:
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Dr. Williams is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology. She has her PhD in Emerging Infectious Diseases from the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, MD. Additionally, she spent four years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in a specialty post-doctoral training program (IRACDA @ UNC / SPIRE) that emphasizes effective and equitable teaching practices. As part of this program, Dr. Williams was a visiting lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. At VWU, she teaches courses in microbiology and genetics.
Dr. Williams’s primary research interests are gene regulation and pathogenesis mechanisms of bacteria. Her lab investigates how the pathogen Clostridioides difficile uses many signaling pathways to control expression of genes involved in responding to the changing environment and causing disease. Students in her lab utilize genetic tools to manipulate C. diff two-component system genes, then use those modified bacterial strains to answer questions about protein-protein interactions, protein-DNA interactions, and the role of the signaling pathways in C. diff biology.