is a species of coagulase-negative staphylococcus (CoNS) that causes serious infections in humans akin to those of It was often misidentified as , but this has been rectified by recent routine use of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) in diagnostic laboratories. It encodes a diverse array of virulence factors for adhesion, cytotoxicity, and innate immune evasion, but these are less diverse than those encoded by It expresses an iron-regulated surface determinant (Isd) system combined with a novel energy-coupling factor (ECF) mechanism for extracting heme from hemoproteins. Small cytolytic synergistic hemolysins (SLUSH), peptides related to phenol-soluble modulins of , act synergistically with β-toxin to lyse erythrocytes. expresses a novel peptide antibiotic, lugdunin, that can influence the nasal and skin microbiota. Endovascular infections are initiated by bacterial adherence to fibrinogen promoted by a homologue of clumping factor A and to von Willebrand factor on damaged endothelium by an uncharacterized mechanism. survives within mature phagolysosomes of macrophages without growing and is released only following apoptosis. This differs fundamentally from , which actively grows and expresses bicomponent leukotoxins that cause membrane damage and could contribute to survival in the infected host. is being investigated as a probiotic to eradicate from the nares of carriers. However, this is contraindicated by its innate virulence. Studies to obtain a deeper understanding of colonization, virulence, and microbiome interactions are therefore warranted.