The O’Brien Lab is a new lab in the Borch Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN.

We investigate mechanisms through which chronic bacterial infections remodel host tissues.

Our model system is gastric cancer, the fifth most common cancer worldwide. About 80% of gastric cancer cases are attributed to stomach infection with the bacterium Helicobacter pylori.

We use microbiology, immunology and cell biology approaches to investigate how chronic H. pylori infection remodels the gastric epithelium, leading to metaplasia and cancer development.

This work is currently funded by Purdue University, the Ralph W. and Grace M. Showalter Research Trust, and the National Cancer Institute.