Sean Reid, PhD

Assistant Chair and Professor, Department of Medical Foundations
Specialty
Microbiology/Immunology
sean reid headshot
Contact Information

seanreid@rossu.edu

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Biography

Dr. Reid joined Ross University School of Medicine (RUSM) in 2014 as an Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. He has served in many capacities during his tenure: 

  • Vice Chair and Assistant Chair of Medical Foundations
  • Chair of the Faculty Senate
  • Chair of the Institutional Review Board
  • Chair of Basic Sciences Evaluation Subcommittee
  • Member of Curriculum Committee
  • Module director of the Pulmonary and Musculoskeletal and Integument modules
  • Subcommittee Chair for Accreditation (teaching and assessment)
  • Member of the Examination, Analysis and Review subcommittee   

Before joining RUSM, Dr. Reid was an Intramural Research Training Award Fellow in the Laboratory of Human Bacterial Pathogenesis at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Following, Dr. Reid spent nearly 10 years as an Assistant and Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Wake Forest School of Medicine in North Carolina. While there, Dr. Reid developed a robust research program studying the pathogenesis of Streptococcus pyogenes and was supported by numerous federal and organizational grants. 

In addition to training many successful graduate students in his laboratory, he was selected for the School of Medicine Core Education Faculty where he served as Director of the Cellular and Subcellular Processes course taught to first year medical students. Dr. Reid also served on the Committee on Admissions and the Committee on Undergraduate Medical Education.  

Dr. Reid is an Associate Editor for Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, specialty section Biofilms, and was an editor for PLoS ONE.  He has been a reviewer for many publications including Microbiology, Trends in Microbiology, Journal of Bacteriology, FEMS Immunology and Medical Microbiology, PLoS Pathogens, and the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.  

An author of numerous papers in internationally peer-reviewed journals, Dr. Reid is also the recipient of several awards including two at RUSM — a Ron Taylor Award and Most Valuable Professor: Microbiology. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in biology at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania and his PhD in biology from Pennsylvania State University. 

Education
  • Undergraduate Degree:  BSc, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA, 1994
  • Medical/Doctoral Degree: Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, 2000
  • Other Degrees/Training: National Institutes of Health Intramural Research Training Award Fellow
     
Areas of Expertise

Population Genetics/Molecular Evolution, Bacterial Pathogenesis

Honors & Awards

Ron Taylor Award, Most Valuable Professor: Microbiology

Research Interests

Bacterial Pathogenesis of Streptococcus pyogenes

Publications

Young, C. A., Gordon, L. D., Fang Z., Holder, R. C. and Reid, S. D. (2015) Copper Tolerance and Characterization of a Copper-Responsive Operon, copYAZ, in an M1T1 Clinical Strain of Streptococcus pyogenes. J. Bacteriol. 197:2580.

Holder, R. C., Kirse, D. J., Evans, A. K., Peters, T. R., Poehling, K. A., Swords, W. E., and S. D. Reid. (2015) Otopathogens Detected in Middle Ear Fluid Obtained during Tympanostomy Tube Insertion: Contrasting Purulent and Non-Purulent Effusions. PLoS ONE. 10:e0128606.

Holder, R. C., Kirse, D. J., Evans, A. K., Peters, T. R., Poehling, K. A., Swords, W. E., and S. D. Reid. (2012). One third of middle ear effusions from children undergoing tympanostomy tube replacement had multiple bacterial pathogens. BMC Pediatrics. 12:87.

Roberts, A. L., Connolly, K. L., Kirse, D. J., Evans, A. K., Poehling, K. A., Peters, T. R., and S. D. Reid. (2012). Detection of group A Streptococcus in tonsils from pediatric patients reveals high rate of asymptomatic streptococcal carriage. BMC Pediatrics. 12:3.

Connolly, K., Braden, A. K., Holder, R. C., and S. D. Reid. (2011). Srv Mediated Dispersal of Streptococcal Biofilms Through SpeB is Observed in CovRS+ Strains. PLoS ONE. 6(12):e28640.

Connolly, K., Roberts, A. L., Holder, R. C., and S. D. Reid. (2011). Dispersal of group A streptococcal biofilms by the cysteine protease SpeB leads to increased disease severity in a murine model. PLoS ONE. 6(4): e18984.

Roberts, A. L., Connolly, K. L., Doern, C. D., Holder, R. C., and S. D. Reid. (2010). Loss of the group A Streptococcus regulator Srv decreases biofilm formation in vivo in an otitis media model of infection. Infect Immun. 78:4800-8.

Reid, S. D., Hong, W., Dew, K. E., Winn, D. R., Pang, B., Watt, J., Glover, D. T., Hollingshead, S. K., and W. E. Swords. (2009). Streptococcus pneumoniae forms surface-attached communities in the middle ear of experimentally infected chinchillas. J Infect Dis 199:786-94. Cover Article with Editorial

Doern, C. D.*, Roberts, A. L.*, Hong, W., Nelson, J., Lukomski, S., Swords, W. E. and S. D. Reid. (2009). Biofilm formation by group A Streptococcus: a role for the streptococcal regulator of virulence (Srv) and streptococcal cysteine protease (SpeB). Microbiology 155, 46-52. *These authors contributed equally to this work.

Doern, C. D., Holder, R. C. and S. D. Reid. (2008). Point mutations within the streptococcal regulator of virulence (Srv) alter protein-DNA interactions and Srv function. Microbiology 154, 1998-2007.

Reid, S. D., Chaussee, M. S., Doern, C. D., Chaussee, M. A., Montgomery, A. G., Sturdevant, D. E., and J. M. Musser. (2006). Inactivation of the group A Streptococcus regulator srv results in global reduction of transcript levels, and changes in extracellular protein production. FEMS Immuno. Med. Micro. 48:283-292.

Reid, S. D., Lee, A. G. and J. M. Musser. (2004). Identification of srv, a PrfA-like regulator of group A Streptococcus that influences virulence. Infect. Immun. 72:1799-1803.

Reid, S. D., Lee, A. G., Voyich, J. M., DeLeo, F. R., Lei, B., Ireland, R. M., Green, N. M., Liu, M., Lukomski, S., and J. M. Musser. (2003). Characterization of an extracellular virulence factor made by Group A Streptococcus with homology to the Listeria monocytogenes internalin family of proteins. Infect. Immun. 71:7043-7052.

Reid, S. D., Green, N. M., Sylva, G. L., Voyich, J. M., Stenseth, E. T., DeLeo, F. R., Palzkill, T. M., Low, D. E., Hill, H. R., and J. M. Musser. (2002). Postgenomic analysis of four novel antigens of group A Streptococcus: Growth phase-dependent gene transcription and human serologic response. J. Bacteriol. 184:6316-6324.

Reid, S. D., Green, N. M., Buss, J. K., Lei, B., and J. M. Musser. (2001). Multilocus analysis of extracellular putative virulence proteins made by group A Streptococcus: population genetics, human serologic response, and gene transcription. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 98:7552-7557.

Reid, S. D., Hoe, N. P., Smoot, L. M., and J. M. Musser. (2001). Group A Streptococcus: allelic variation, population genetics, and host-pathogen interactions. J. Clin. Invest. 107:393-399.

Reid, S. D., Herbelin, C. J., Bumbaugh, A. C., Selander, R. K., and T. S. Whittam. (2000). Parallel evolution of virulence in pathogenic Escherichia coli. Nature. 406:64-67.