He is a bacteriologist with more than three decades of experience in the study of the zoonotic pathogen Brucella. R. Martin Roop II (Marty) obtained his BS and PhD from Virginia Tech and did postdoctoral work at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. Following faculty appointments at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, he relocated his lab to Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University in 2001 where he presently holds the rank of Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Since its establishment in 1988, the Roop lab has employed genetic approaches and cellular and animal models to gain a better understanding of how Brucella strains produce disease in their mammalian hosts.