Maureen J. Donlin, PhD

Saint Louis University (SLU)

The human fungal pathogen, Cryptococcus neoformans, is the focus of research in our laboratory. One arm of our research is to understand how C. neoformans regulates and remodels its cell wall in response to stress and treatment with antifungals. We are particularly interested in identifying cell surface proteins that act as sensors and activate the cell wall integrity signaling cascade, a MAP kinase cascade that is activated with cell wall stress. A second arm of our research is to identify novel small molecules that can inhibit growth of the fungus and potentially be developed into new anti-fungal therapies.