Welcome to the Peterson Antimicrobial Resistance Gene Lab!

Nestled inside the Biology Department at Mercer University, our lab investigates one of the most urgent and fascinating challenges in biology: antimicrobial resistance. Antibiotics are one of medicine’s greatest triumphs, but resistance is a relentless microbial arms race, occurring soon after antimicrobial discovery and use.

In the Peterson ARG Lab, we explore resistance from the molecular biology to environmental biology branches. Our projects range from biochemically characterizing various ABC antimicrobial resistance proteins, to tracking how resistance genes move through environments shaped by human activity, to uncovering the mechanisms that allow these genes to persist and spread. Science in our lab is collaborative, hands-on, and driven by curiosity. Whether we’re analyzing protein function at the bench or investigating gene flow in environmental samples, our goal is the same: to better understand the evolutionary arms race between microbes and medicine.

This website is your starting point.

• Visit Projects to dive into the questions we’re currently asking.

• Explore Join the Lab to learn how you can become part of the team.

• Check out our publications as they emerge

If something sparks your interest, reach out. I’m always excited to talk science, ideas, and new collaborations.

Contact Dr. Peterson by email: [email protected]