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 three NIH grants and the research staff in the lab currently includes 2 PhD students and 4 researchAssistant Professors.

Publications:

Menon, V., D. Li, A. Dubrovska, N. Chauhan, A. West, & R. Calderone. 2006. Functional characterization of the Ssk1p response regulador domain in Candida albicans as determined by point mutations. Mol. Microbiol. (in press).

Chauhan, N, J-P Latge, & R. Calderone. 2006. Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus: oxidant adaptation and signaling. Nature Microbiol. Rev. 4:435-444.

Chabane, S., J. Sarfati, O. Ibrahim-Granet, Du, C., R. Calderone, and J-P Latge. 2006. The GPI-anchored Ecm33 protein influences Aspergillus fumigatus conidial cell wall biosíntesis. Applied. Environ. Microbiology 72: 3259-3267.

Andaluz, E. T. Ciudad, J. Gómez-Raja, R. Calderone, and G. Larriba. 2006. Rad52 depletion in Candida albicans triggers both the DNA-damage checkpoint and is accompanied by but independent of expression of hypha specific genes Mol. Microbiol. 59:1452-1472.

Chauhan, N., T. Cuidad, A. Rodríguez-Alejandre, G. Larriba, R. Calderone, & E. Andaluz. 2005. Virulence and karyotype análysis of rad52 mutants of Candida albicans: regeneration of a truncated chromosome of a reintegrant strain (rad52/RAD52) in the host. Infect. Immun. 73:8069-8078.

Chen, D., J. Sarfati, JP Latge, and R. Calderone. 2006. The sakA (Hog1) and tscB (Sln1) in oxidant adaptation of Aspergillus fumigatus. Med. Mycol. 44:211-218.

Kruppa, M. & R. Calderone. 2006. Histidine kinases of human pathogenic fungi. FEMS Yeast Res. 6: 149-159.

Chen, D., R. Calderone, J. Richert, & D. Li. 2005. Deletion of the SSK1 response regulator gene in Candida albicans contributes to enhanced killing by human polymorphonuclear neutrophils. Infect. Immun 73: 865-871.

Li, D-M, V. Gurkovska, M. Sheridan, R. Calderone, & N. Chauhan. 2004 Studies on the regulation of the two-component histidine kinase gene CHK1 in Candida albicans using the heterologous lacZ reporter gene. Microbiology 150: 3305-3313.

Kruppa, M., B. Krom, R. Cihlar, and R. Calderone. 2004. The CHK1 of Candida albicans regulates quorum sensing. Eukaryotic Cell 3:1062-1065.