Early stage in the establishment of a Candida albicans biofilm. 40x micrograph by Lucho Murillo. Current members of our lab: Nina Agabian, Jan Dungan, Eric Haas-Stapleton, Gerwald Köhler, Alan Kuo, Chung-Yu Lan, Teresa Moeller, Lucho Murillo, George Newport, Keh-Weei Tzung. Search our Annotation of the C. albicans genome. Browse our publications that describe the use of bioinformatic methods to study C. albicans.

The overall goal of our research is to discover and investigate the underlying mechanisms of pathogenesis for both protozoan and fungal pathogens at the molecular, cellular, and organismic levels. Our principal genomic interest is to use the genomic sequence of the pathogenic fungus Candida albicans to develop DNA microarrays that will allow genome-wide expression analysis. We are using this approach to identify and characterize the principal genetic factors associated with commensal vs. pathogenic infections, and in the context of mucosal and systemic disease. Our immediate applications of DNA microarrays are to: determine the patterns of gene expression in different disease presentations and in lesions in different host tissues. understand the complex relationship between growth and metabolism and the expression of particular virulence traits. compare the human disease with that replicated in relevant animal models. Our immediate bioinformatic objective is to maximize the utility of the C. albicans genome sequence. Our efforts related to this objective include: annotating the genome manually and computationally (see our Annotation). compiling a reference dataset of genome expression in a variety of genetic, physiological, morphological, and ecological states, including biofilms (ie, a Candida Transcriptome). identifying genes of biological interest and medical relevance, and the genomic elements that regulate their transcription. making our genomic and bioinformatic results available through this web database.