Faculty: Richard Calderone
Dr. Calderone...
is Professor & Charman of the Department of Microbiology & Immunology. He is also a Co-Director of the Georgetown University Center for Infectious Disease (http://cid.georgetown.edu) and Director of the M.S. program in Biomedical Science Policy & Advocacy.
Summary:
- Ph.D., West Virginia University, 1970
- At Georgetown Since: 1974
- Current lab has capacity for both new Ph.D. students and Post Doctoral Fellows
- Contact: (202) 687-1513; calderor@georgetown.edu
Details:
The focus of research in the Calderone laboratory is on the two most common fungal pathogens of immunocompromised patients, Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus. We use molecular biological and biochemical approaches to identify new targets on these fungi that can be exploited in drug discovery. In this regard, the potential drug targets that have been identified are two-component signal transduction proteins. In addition, in C. albicans, we study DNA repair and again focus upon identifying unique proteins that may have potential as drug targets. The lab is supported by NIH funds and the research staff in the lab currently includes 3 PhD students and 2 research Assistant Professors and a post-doctoral fellow.
Publications:
- Menon V, De Bernardis F, Calderone R, Chauhan N. Transcriptional profiling of the Candida albicans Ssk1p receiver domain point mutants and their virulence. FEMS Yeast Res. 2008 Aug;8(5):756-63. Epub 2008 Jul 8.
- Walia A, Calderone R. The SSK2 MAPKKK of Candida albicans is required for oxidant adaptation in vitro. FEMS Yeast Res. 2008 Mar;8(2):287-99. Epub 2007 Dec 17.
- Gómez-Raja J, Andaluz E, Magee B, Calderone R, Larriba G. A single SNP, G929T (Gly310Val), determines the presence of a functional and a non-functional allele of HIS4 in Candida albicans SC5314: detection of the non-functional allele in laboratory strains. Fungal Genet Biol. 2008 Apr;45(4):527-41. Epub 2007 Sep 21.
- Chauhan N, Kruppa M, Calderone R. The Ssk1p response regulator and Chk1p histidine kinase mutants of Candida albicans are hypersensitive to fluconazole and voriconazole. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2007 Oct;51(10):3747-51. Epub 2007 Jul 30.
- Sturtevant J, Calderone R. Candida albicans adhesins: Biochemical aspects and virulence. Rev Iberoam Micol. 1997 Sep;14(3):90-7.
- Arana DM, Alonso-Monge R, Du C, Calderone R, Pla J. Differential susceptibility of mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway mutants to oxidative-mediated killing by phagocytes in the fungal pathogen Candida albicans. Cell Microbiol. 2007 Jul;9(7):1647-59. Epub 2007 May 8.
- Andaluz E, Gómez-Raja J, Hermosa B, Ciudad T, Rustchenko E, Calderone R, Larriba G. Loss and fragmentation of chromosome 5 are major events linked to the adaptation of rad52-DeltaDelta strains of Candida albicans to sorbose. Fungal Genet Biol. 2007 Aug;44(8):789-98. Epub 2007 Jan 11.
- Menon V, Li D, Chauhan N, Rajnarayanan R, Dubrovska A, West AH, Calderone R. Functional studies of the Ssk1p response regulator protein of Candida albicans as determined by phenotypic analysis of receiver domain point mutants. Mol Microbiol. 2006 Nov;62(4):997-1013. Epub 2006 Oct 13.
- Sandovsky-Losica H, Chauhan N, Calderone R, Segal E. Gene transcription studies of Candida albicans following infection of HEp2 epithelial cells.
Med Mycol. 2006 Jun;44(4):329-34. - Chauhan N, Latge JP, Calderone R. Signalling and oxidant adaptation in Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus. Nat Rev Microbiol. 2006 Jun;4(6):435-44. Review.
- Du C, Sarfati J, Latge JP, Calderone R. The role of the sakA (Hog1) and tcsB (sln1) genes in the oxidant adaptation of Aspergillus fumigatus. Med Mycol. 2006 May;44(3):211-8.
