M. Stephen Trent, PhD, is the UGA Foundation Distinguished Professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Trent will present “Engineering Adjuvants and Antigens from the Ground Up” at 2 p.m. on Monday, December 4, in Scaife Hall, Lecture Room 3. [Add to Calendar] Saleem A. Khan, PhD, professor of microbiology and molecular genetics and Center for Vaccine Research interim director, will host the seminar.  

Trent studies microbial pathogenesis and investigates the mechanisms behind the interactions taking place on microbes’ outer membranes and surfaces, which play a key role in infection and drug resistance. The foci of his current research projects include development of a novel vaccine platform involving “surface antigen/adjuvant engineering” (SAAVE), investigating bacterial surface structures of Helicobacter pylori and Campylobacter jejuni, and exploring the outer surface of Vibrio cholerae.

Trent received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Virginia and his biochemistry and molecular biology PhD from the Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University. He completed a biochemistry and molecular biology postdoctoral fellowship at Duke University Medical Center. Prior to joining the University of Georgia, Trent was a professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was associate director of its Center for Infectious Diseases.