Cornell Center for Antimicrobial Resistance Research & Education Spring Seminar Series 2026

Title: Biofilm and Antimicrobial Resistance: Structure, Mechanisms, and Emerging Solutions

Speaker Bio: Karin Sauer studies biofilm formation by the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. She focuses on elucidating regulatory mechanisms underlying biofilm development, biofilm dispersion and biofilm antimicrobial resistance. She earned a doctorate in microbiology and biochemistry from the Max-Planck-Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, Germany, completed post-doctoral fellowships at the Max-Planck-Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology and the Center for Biofilm Engineering at Montana State University. Her postdoctoral work with Anne Camper at the Center for Biofilm Engineering at Montana State University in Bozeman and her subsequent research at Binghamton University led to the discovery that surface attachment by Pseudomonas sp. not only coincides with significant changes at the transcript and protein levels and but that subsequent formation of biofilms occurs in a progressive and stage-specific manner with each stage displaying a distinct phenotype. Dr. Sauer joined the faculty at the Department of Biological Sciences at Binghamton University in 2002. She is a Distinguished Professor at the Department of Biological Sciences, Co-director of the Binghamton Biofilm Research Center (BBRC), and Co-director of the Microbial Biofilm REU program. Karin Sauer is the recipient of the Otto Hahn Medal, the Dean’s distinguished lecture, the Chancellor's Awards for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities, and has recently been elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. Her research has received continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health since 2003.