Dr. Schnappinger is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Weill Cornell Medicine. One of the main goals of his research is to help develop new medicines for the treatment and prevention of Tuberculosis (TB), an infectious disease that still claims millions of lives each year. This work began with developing a regulatory system that allows to turn Mtb genes on and off, both in vitro and during infections. The Schnappinger lab now use this system (i) to evaluate Mtb gene products as new targets for TB drug development by documenting the impact of their genetic inactivation on growth and persistence of Mtb in vitro and in mice; (ii) to help elucidate the mechanisms by which small-molecules inhibit the growth of Mtb; (iii) to construct mutants for target-directed whole-cells screens; and (iv) to measure vulnerability of Mtb to the partial, CRISPRi-mediated inactivation of individual genes.