Meet Dr. Brandon Anjuwon-Foster, the man who Defeated one of the Most Dangerous Hospital Superbugs.

Dr. Brandon Anjuwon-Foster was the one who discovered a secret “control button” inside the DNA of Clostridioides difficile (C. diff). C diff is one of the most dangerous known hospital superbugs.

This button he discovered works like a light switch. It decides when the bacteria should grow whip-like tails (called flagella) so it can swim and move around. Or it dictates when it should stop moving and start pumping out powerful toxins (poisons) that attack and damage a person’s intestines.

In short, the bacteria uses this genetic switch to flip between travel mode and attack mode.Dr. Anjuwon-Foster was the one who figured out how this switch works.

His discovery is important because it gives scientists new ideas on how to fight C. diff. For example, scientists now have the ability to jam that switch so that the bacteria can’t turn on its poison production or move effectively enough to spread infection.

He was born in 1987 in Virginia as Brandon Ramal Anjuwon-Foster. He went to George Mason University and earned a bachelor's degree in neuroscience. Next, he enrolled in the Microbiology and Immunology PhD program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While there, around 2013, was when Brandon tackled one of the most cunning pathogens in healthcare: C. difficile. The bacterium is known to cause severe diarrhea and colitis, especially after antibiotic use disrupts the gut microbiome, affecting hundreds of thousands of patients annually.

In 2017, while still a graduate student, he published groundbreaking research in PLoS Genetics revealing the genetic switch that coordinates the production of flagella and toxins. His work explained how the bug adapts and causes havoc, and has since opened doors for targeted therapies.

His work earned him recognition, including the G. Philip Manire Graduate Student Excellence in Research Award. In the same year, he published a review in Gut Microbes on phase variation of its virulence factors.

Brandon next joined Dr. Kumaran Ramamurthi's lab at the National Cancer Institute (part of the NIH) as a postdoctoral fellow in May 2018. While there, he contributed to expanding the limits of knowledge on bacterial cell division. Notably, he co-authored work on how a protein called PcdA promotes orthogonal division plane selection in Staphylococcus aureus. This research explored how bacteria control their division planes, with implications for understanding cell biology and potential antibiotic targets.

Transitioning from academia to real-world impact, Brandon became a Pharmaceutical Scientist and Regulatory Scientist at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Silver Spring, Maryland. In this role, he works on in vitro diagnostic devices for infectious diseases, helping ensure that tests for detecting pathogens are safe, effective, and reach patients who need them. His expertise bridged basic science discoveries with regulatory science that protects public health.

Anjuwon–Foster now works for ThermoFischer Scientific PPD, a global contract research organization (commonly referred to as a CRO). He is an associate research scientist and technical project manager.

Throughout his career, Brandon has authored or co-authored around 27 research works with hundreds of citations, focusing on bacterial genetics, virulence, and regulation. His story is one of perseverance, intellectual rigor, and quiet excellence.

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