David Wooster

After working on cystic fibrosis for 7 years as a graduate student, I earned my Ph.D. in biochemistry at Montana State University in 2002, then went to Southern California at Children's Hospital Los Angeles where I studied meningitis in neonates (new borns). My project involved discovering how certain bacteria (like E. coli) are able to survive in the bloodstream long enough to invade the brain.

My fellowship having ended in 2004, I began teaching and eventually rewrote several of my college lectures in book form, ideas I had kicking around which, over the course of the next 4 years, gradually grew into the fictional story of Benjamin Ketchum, a microbiologist who has a series of adventures. "Cystic Fibrosis & the Brewer's Yeast: A Microbiology Tale" is based on my experiences as a graduate student and a postdoctoral researcher in Los Angeles.