Itidal Reslane, PhD

Itidal earned her B.S. in Biomedical Science from Lebanese International University and her M.S. in Microbiology and Ph.D. in Immunology, Pathology, and Infectious Disease from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. During her graduate studies in the laboratory of Dr. Paul Fey, she investigated the regulation and adaptation of arginine metabolism in Staphylococcus aureus, with a focus on how metabolic flexibility contributes to bacterial persistence during infection. In the Skaar Lab, Itidal studies selenium metabolism at the host–Clostridioides difficile interface. Her work focuses on experimentally defining the C. difficile selenoproteome under host-imposed nutrient limitation and determining how selenium availability influences bacterial physiology and pathogenesis. She also investigates how the host selenoprotein SELENOP contributes to selenium availability and shapes the outcome of C. difficile infection.