Rate My Professor Ryan Hunter

Ryan Hunter is an Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, a position he has held since 2023. He earned his BS in Microbiology from the University of Guelph in 2000 and his PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the same institution in 2007. Hunter's postdoctoral training included fellowships in Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2008 to 2010 and at the California Institute of Technology from 2010 to 2013. Prior to joining the University at Buffalo, he served as an Assistant Professor (2013–2020) and then Associate Professor (2020–2023) in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Minnesota. He also held a Visiting Professor position in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Guelph from 2022 to 2023. Earlier in his career, Hunter worked as a Research Scientist in the Exobiology Research Element at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2001.

Hunter's research specializes in bacterial pathogenesis, bioinformatics, microbial pathogenesis, and host-pathogen interactions, with a focus on airway pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus, anaerobe-host interactions, polymicrobial infections, and microbiota associated with cystic fibrosis and gastrointestinal complications. His laboratory develops innovative models to study mucus-microbe interactions and multi-omic analyses of host-associated communities. Key publications include 'Dual oxic-anoxic co-culture enables direct study of anaerobe–host interactions at the airway epithelial interface' (mBio, 2025, with P.J. Moore et al.), 'Commensal-derived short-chain fatty acids disrupt lipid membrane homeostasis in Staphylococcus aureus' (mBio, 2025, with J.R. Fletcher et al.), 'Host- and microbial-mediated mucin degradation differentially shape Pseudomonas aeruginosa physiology and gene expression' (PLoS Pathogens, 2025, with S.J. Arif et al.), and 'Microbiome and metabolome patterns after lung transplantation reflect underlying disease and chronic lung allograft dysfunction' (Microbiome, 2024, with C. Martin et al.). Hunter has received the NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award from NHLBI (2012), Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor (2016), Clinical and Translational Science Institute Mentor of the Year Honorable Mention (2016), and Most Engaging Professor, Upper Division (2019). As Principal Investigator, he leads grants from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and National Cancer Institute on topics including cystic fibrosis microbiota, antibiotic development, and microbial contributions to tumorigenesis.