Research Summary

Humans constantly interact with microbes in the environment, yet these organisms rarely cause disease. Among the 3-10+ million species in the fungal kingdom, only a few hundred species are capable of causing human disease and only a few dozen routinely do so. My lab is interested in what makes a fungus a human pathogen and how fungi adapt to shifting environments within both their normal environmental niches and the infected host.

Education

• BA, Molecular Biology, Pomona College. Project: Intersection between DNA repair and aging in yeast
• PhD, Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Project: [GAR+]: a novel type of prion involved in glucose signaling and environmental sensing