S. J. Wright

Pathogenic diversification of the gut commensal Providencia alcalifaciens via acquisition of a second type III secretion system

This study investigates the role of two type III secretion systems in Providencia alcalifaciens, showing their differential contributions to host interactions and pathogenicity.

Disrupting CD38-driven T cell dysfunction restores sensitivity to cancer immunotherapy

This study shows that targeting CD38 improves T cell function and restores response to immunotherapy in melanoma models.

PERK-mediated antioxidant response is key for pathogen persistence in ticks

This study shows that the PERK pathway in ticks helps pathogens persist by enhancing an antioxidant response regulated by Nrf2.

Decomposing leaf mass into metabolic and structural components explains divergent patterns of trait variation within and among plant species

Functional traits of young seedlings predict trade-offs in seedling performance in three neotropical forests.

The paper shows that seedling functional traits and cotyledon strategy predict performance trade-offs across three tropical forests.

Pervasive species-specific repulsion among adult tropical trees

The paper shows that adult tropical tree species exhibit strong spatial repulsion, indicating conspecific negative density dependence exceeds heterospecific effects.

Multi-scale phenological niches of seed fall in diverse Amazonian plant communities

The paper analyzes seed fall phenology in Amazonian plant communities to determine if patterns are non-random and identifies temporal scales and ecological drivers of reproductive phenology.

Predicting kinase inhibitors using bioactivity matrix derived informer sets

The paper develops an informer-based ranking method to predict kinase inhibitor activity using chemogenomic data, outperforming traditional chemical diversity-based approaches in both retrospective and prospective tests.

Unifying intra- and inter-specific variation in tropical tree mortality

This study develops a Bayesian framework to predict tree mortality in tropical forests by integrating growth-dependent and growth-independent factors across species and time.