Advancing our understanding of streptococcal pathogenesis, antimicrobial resistance, and epidemiology to develop better prevention and treatment strategies.
Streptococcus pyogenes (Group A Streptococcus, GAS) causes more than 700 million infections and over 500,000 deaths annually. Our laboratory investigates three integrated research programs focused on gene regulatory systems, transcriptional regulators, and epidemic clonal emergence.
Streptococcus agalactiae (Group B Streptococcus, GBS) remains a leading cause of neonatal sepsis and meningitis and is now the most frequent cause of invasive bacterial disease in non-pregnant adults — with over 30,000 cases annually in the United States. Our laboratory investigates the mechanisms underlying adult GBS invasive disease, with emphasis on capsular polysaccharide type V (CPS V) and ST1 emergence.
The Flores laboratory has a long-standing program in clinical and genomic epidemiology of Gram-positive pathogens — principally GAS and GBS, but also S. pneumoniae, S. aureus, and the S. anginosus group. We integrate population-based surveillance with whole-genome sequencing to characterize disease burden, track emerging strains, and detect clonal replacement events.
Peer-reviewed publications from the Flores Streptococcal Laboratory. Data sourced directly from PubMed. Click any DOI link to view the full article.
The Flores Streptococcal Laboratory brings together physician-scientists, research faculty, and trainees united by a shared interest in streptococcal biology, genomics, and infectious disease epidemiology.
Dr. Anthony R. Flores is a physician-scientist and principal investigator in the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. His laboratory pursues NIH-funded, hypothesis-driven research on the pathogenesis, gene regulation, and epidemiology of streptococcal infections. With more than 50 peer-reviewed publications, his program integrates bacterial genetics, functional genomics, in vivo infection models, and population-level whole-genome sequencing to address clinically important questions about Group A and Group B Streptococcal disease. The laboratory’s long-term mission is to understand how Gram-positive pathogens sense and respond to host defenses, evolve to cause epidemic disease, and drive clinical morbidity with the ultimate goal of informing improved vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics.