Welcome to the website for Judith Berman's laboratory at the University of Minnesota.  Our research focuses on Candida albicans, an opportunistic fungal pathogen of humans that diverged from the model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, ~180 million years ago. C. albicans is a commensal organism, living harmlessly in the digestive tract of healthy humans. In addition to growing with yeast or pseudohyphal morphologies, it also forms true hyphae with characteristics of other filamentous fungi.  C. albicans can cause superficial mucosal infections such as thrush or vaginitis.  It also causes life-threatening systemic infections, especially in immune-compromised individuals. Mortality from systemic infections in the U.S. can be as high as 40%, despite the use of available antifungal therapies.  The acquisition of drug resistance, especially resistance to the popular azole drugs, is an ongoing concern. C. albicans does not have a known meiotic cycle, despite being able to form tetraploids when two diploids are mated.  In addition, the karyotype is very plastic, tolerating whole chromosome and segmental aneuploidies.

Research projects ongoing in the lab include:

• Analysis of genome stability with a particular focus on the mechanisms that give rise to aneuploidies and single nucleotide polymorphisms
• Study of chromosomal structures such as centromeres, origins of replication and telomeres to understand how they participate in the maintenance and evolution of karyotype plasticity
• Development of assays for high throughput screens for compounds/drugs that affect genome stability and  the rate of evolution of drug resistance.
• Analysis of the mechanisms of cellular morphogenesis and its relationship to cell cycle progression.
• Comparative analysis of global gene expression properties of C. albicans and related yeasts.

Our lab is located in the MCB building on the Minneapolis Campus and we are affiliated with the Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Genetics and the Department of Microbiology.  Feel free to browse our web page and to contact us via email using email addresses on our personnel page.

Read the University news article about Judy Berman: Stemming the rising tide of yeast infections