The focus of the McDonald laboratory is the analysis of NOD2-dependent signaling and how this is altered in the inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's disease (CD). Dr. McDonald obtained her Ph.D. from the State University at Stony Brook (Stony Brook, NY) in Molecular & Cellular Immunology & Pathology. She did two postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Michigan Medical School, the first with Jack E. Dixon, Ph.D. in the area of microbial pathogenesis and the second in the laboratory of Gabriel Nuez, M.D., a world renowned expert in NOD-like receptor signaling and head of one of the first laboratories to identify NOD2 as a CD-susceptibility gene. As an independent scientist, she has developed a research program investigating 1) functional interactions between NOD2 and other CD risk genes involved in autophagy and 2) regulation of NOD2 signaling in CD.