Jeffrey P. Henderson, MD, PhD

Jeffrey P. Henderson, MD, PhD

Professor of Medicine and Molecular Microbiology

Jeffrey P Henderson, MD, PhD, FIDSA is a physician-scientist and co-director of the Center for Women’s Infectious Diseases (cWIDR).

Dr. Henderson specializes in infection pathogenesis, with foci in urinary tract infections, C. difficile infections, post-operative infections, and bacterial pneumonia. His group develops and applies translational metabolomics approaches centered on patient-derived specimens and microbial isolates in collaboration with physician researchers. Insights from these studies inform both fundamental biology and medical application. These interdisciplinary studies have benefitted greatly from the involvement of clinical fellows, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students. He attends on the general ID inpatient service teaching fellows, residents, and students.

He has mentored fellows, graduate students, and undergraduates with varied backgrounds in microbiology, biochemistry, chemistry, and chemical engineering. Dr. Henderson was awarded the 2017 Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award by the Washington University Graduate Student Senate. Trainees have gone on to tenure track faculty positions, National Institutes of Health, and executive roles in industry.

Related Links
  1. WUPhysicians Profile
  2. Henderson Laboratory
  3. Diabetic Cardiovascular Disease Center
Additional Titles
Education
  • Honors B.S., Chemistry: University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (1994)
  • PhD, Molecular Biophysics: Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO (2002)
  • Medical Degree: Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO (2002)
  • Residency: Barnes-Jewish Hospital at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO (2004)
  • Fellowship, Infectious Diseases: Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO (2006)
Board Certifications
  • Infectious Diseases, American Board of Internal Medicine
Recognition
Interests

My laboratory uses a interdisciplinary approach to better understand bacterial virulence and devise improved antibacterial therapeutic strategies. Many medically important bacterial pathogens colonize their hosts without causing disease. Understanding how these bacteria establish themselves and resist host defenses is therefore of particular interest. To do this, we combine patient-oriented studies with mass spectrometry to identify secreted products produced by pathogenic strains. Using this approach, a recent metabolomic analysis of colonizing E. coli strains found that production of small molecules involved in iron scavenging – called siderophores – is acquired or optimized among strains causing recurrent urinary tract infections. This microbial iron acquisition strategy may have evolved billions of years ago with formation of an oxygen-containing atmosphere and have since evolved further adaptations among pathogens.

These virulence-associated bacterial systems and the host factors with which they are coevolving are the subjects of numerous functional studies in the lab. We use both biochemical and microbiological techniques including quantitative mass spectrometry, chemical biology, bacterial biofilm culture, bacterial genetics and mouse models of infection to explore infection pathophysiology. Where network analysis identifies specific pathogen-associated proteins, rational drug design efforts are pursued involving in silico small molecule docking studies. Together, these studies are suggesting new therapeutic and diagnostic strategies for recurrent urinary tract infections and other bacterial infectious diseases.

Selected Publications
  1. Wildenthal JA, Olsen MA, Tran HD, Robinson JI, Myckatyn TM, Warren DK, Brandt KE, Tenenbaum MM, Christensen JM, Tung TH, Sacks JM, Anolik RA, Nickel KB, Fujiwara H, Mucha PJ, Henderson JP. Small molecule correlates of infection precede infection diagnosis in breast implant reconstruction patients. J Clin Invest. 2025 Dec 23:e192104. doi: 10.1172/JCI192104. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 41433109.
  2. Robinson JI, Marks LR, Hinton AL, O’Halloran JA, Goss CW, Mucha PJ, Henderson JP. Development of a metabolome-based respiratory infection prognostic during COVID-19 arrival. mBio. 2024 Nov 22:e0334323. doi: 10.1128/mbio.03343-23. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39576111.
  3. Heffernan, J.R., Katumba, G.L., McCoy, W.H., Henderson, J.P. “Yersiniabactin is a quorum sensing autoinducer and siderophore in uropathogenic Escherichia coli”. mBio. 2024 Feb 14;15(2):e0027723. doi: 10.1128/mbio.00277-23. PMID: 38236035; PMCID: PMC10865836.
  4. Thompson, M.A., Henderson, J.P. et al. “Association of Convalescent Plasma Therapy with Survival in Patients with Hematologic Cancers and COVID-19”. JAMA Oncology.  7(8):1167–75, 2021. PMID 34137799
  5. Robinson J.I., Weir W.H., Crowley J.R., Hink T, Reske K.A., Kwon J.H., Burnham C.D., Dubberke E.R., Mucha P.J., Henderson J.P. “Metabolomic networks connect host-microbiome processes to human Clostridioides difficile infections”. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 130.  2019. doi.org/10.1172/JCI126905. PMID: 31403473
  6. Shields-Cutler, R.R., Crowley, Miller, C.D., Stapleton, A.E., Cui, W., Henderson, J.P. “Human Metabolome-Derived Cofactors are Required for the Antibacterial Activity of Siderocalin in Urine”. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 291(50):25901-25910. 2016. doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M116.759183. PMID 27780864
  7. Chaturvedi, K.S., Hung, C., Crowley, J.R., Stapleton, A.E., Henderson, J.P.“The siderophore yersiniabactin protects uropathogenic Escherichia coli from copper toxicity in vivo”. Nature Chemical Biology, 8, 731–736. 2012. doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.1020. PMID 22772152 

View Jeffrey Parker Henderson’s publications on PubMed.gov »