Our research focuses on the evolution of antimicrobial resistance.  Antimicrobial resistance is a serious problem affecting thousands of lives each year.  Recent outbreaks of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have illustrated the severity of the resistance problem.  Reports in the popular press (New York Times, Oct 16, 2007) have identified MRSA as a greater health threat than HIV.  However, the health threats posed by MRSA are only a small fraction of the antimicrobial resistance problem.  The causative agents of deadly diseases such as tuberculosis and pneumonia are also becoming resistant to nearly all existing antibiotics as well.