Department of Microbiology & Immunology Seminar: “The Molecular and Genetic Basis of Antifungal Drug Resistance and Adhesion of Candida auris”
Speaker:
Neeraj Chauhan, PhD
Associate Professor, Center for Discovery and Innovation, Hackensack Meridian Health
Location: Med-Dent NE301 and via Zoom
Abstract:
Invasive fungal diseases are responsible for ~2.5 million deaths per year worldwide – a number comparable to deaths caused by tuberculosis or malaria. Candida auris is a multidrug-resistant fungal pathogen that has a unique ability to grow and persist on human skin. In addition, C. auris has the potential to cause outbreaks in health care settings, especially in nursing homes for elderly patients. The spread of C. auris is facilitated through its easy transmission by skin-to-skin contact. Therefore, there is a critical need to understand the mechanisms C. auris utilizes to colonize human skin in order to facilitate the development of novel therapeutic interventions.
This seminar will present data on the epigenetic/genetic variations driving drug resistance in C. auris clinical isolates. Data will be presented on the essential role for C. auris Hog1 MAP kinase in promoting skin colonization, as the Hog1-deficient C. auris strains were severely defective in colonizing the murine skin of immunocompetent mice. Finally, using functional genomic approaches and murine model of skin colonization, his group has also identified extensive functional rewiring of C. auris Hog1 MAPK signaling networks in vivo during skin colonization.