As a clinical microbiologist, I am passionate about how the resources of the diagnostic laboratory – technologies, biospecimens, and big data – can drive innovation across the translational spectrum, from patient care and epidemiology to underlying mechanisms of microbial pathogenesis. While these disciplines often operate within distinct professional spheres, I am instead motivated by a desire to integrate diagnostic laboratory and basic science paradigms. Supported by diverse funding sources (NIH, CDC, industry), my interests include bacterial pathobiology (with a particular emphasis on urinary pathogens); molecular assay development; diagnostic clinical trials; and molecular epidemiologic surveillance. For the latter, my group has served as the central testing site for a number of national transmission/surveillance programs for respiratory viruses. Thematically, however, these projects are connected in their desire to leverage the vast quantity of patient-derived specimens, microbial isolates, and electronic health information that arise from routine clinical care. Applying experimental and informatic strategies to these ‘personalized’ resources, we define host-microbe interactions and develop novel diagnostic tools in a way that not only accounts for – but takes advantage of – the profound diversity of microbial pathogens from strain-to-strain and patient-to-patient.