Our research focuses on how cells sense their environment and communicate with other cells. We employ genetic and biochemical approaches to study two divergent single-celled eukaryotic organisms, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the pathogenic fungus Cryptococcus neoformans . These organisms both grow as budding yeasts and appear quite similar, yet they have been diverging over 500 million years of evolution such that one is now a harmless saprophyte and the other a virulent human pathogen that causes life threatening infections of the central nervous system in patients with compromised immunity. We are interested in what their comparison can teach us, both about conserved cellular principles and about the unique adaptations that have occured during the evolution of a human pathogen.
