Read Pukkila-Worley, MD, is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology at UMass Chan Medical School.  His laboratory studies immune activation and regulation in intestinal epithelial cells.  Building on the principle that evolution shaped host-pathogen interactions, Dr. Pukkila-Worley's lab defines conserved mechanisms of pathogen sensing and innate immunity. His laboratory primarily investigates the pathogenesis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a critically important human pathogen, using a variety of approaches, including investigations with the genetic model host Caenorhabditis elegans. He serves as attending physician on the infectious disease consult service at UMass Memorial Medical Center and educates the next generation of scientists and physician-scientists at UMass Chan, both in his laboratory as a Ph.D. thesis mentor and as a director of a major medical student course. He received his medical degree from UNC-Chapel Hill and completed his internship and residency in internal medicine, and clinical fellowship in infectious diseases, at Massachusetts General Hospital. He was then a Cancer Research Institute-Irvington postdoctoral research fellow in the laboratory of National Academy of Science member Fred Ausubel, PhD.