UVACCC Welcomes Uday Tak, PhD

UVACCC welcomes Uday Tak, PhD, Assistant Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology, to the Cancer Biology Research Program. Dr. Tak studies how bacteria and their viruses, known as bacteriophages, interact, focusing on how bacterial immune systems evolved to detect and stop bacteriophage replication. A major focus of the Tak lab is studying the functional evolution of the cGAS-STING pathway, a human immune system that originated in bacteria to defend against bacteriophage predation. By studying the ancient conflict between bacteria and phages, Dr. Tak aims to identify shared innate immune mechanisms that could drive new discoveries in human immunity. Using bacteriology, genetics, biochemistry, cellular imaging, structural biology and biophysics, his lab seeks to identify new bacterial cGAS-like pathways for use in synthetic biology and immunotherapy. Dr. Tak earned his BS in biochemistry from Stony Brook University, his PhD in microbiology from the University of Alabama, Birmingham, and completed his postdoctoral training in microbiology and biochemistry at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

12-18-25