Timothy Sampson, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cell Biology at Emory University. Trained as a microbiologist with Dr. Graham Hatfull at the University of Pittsburgh and with Dr. David Weiss at Emory, Dr. Sampson subsequently performed postdoctoral studies with Dr. Sarkis Mazmanian at Caltech. There, he began exploring how indigenous microbes modulate outcomes of neurological disorders, specifically in models of Parkinson’s disease. Joining the faculty of the Department of Physiology in 2019, Dr. Sampson leads a lab that investigates host-microbe interactions at the interface of Parkinson’s and other neurological diseases historically studied within the context of the central nervous system (CNS). With his background in bacterial genetics and pathogenesis, Dr. Sampson’s research program is poised to address the inherently interdisciplinary questions within this emerging field. Similar to how the study of pathogens has informed the field of immunology, his work aims to reveal new pathways at the microbe-CNS interface.