Dr. Elizabeth Hughes was a Daphne Jackson Fellow and Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Wallace lab from 2019 to 2024. Her main project was to examine what happens when the human fungal pathogen, Cryptococcus neoformans, reactivates within a lab model of a lung-like environment. Measuring differential gene expression under different conditions provides a snapshot of what is happening inside the cell and by doing this over a time course we can follow the metabolic activity within a cell and essentially see what it is planning. Relating this to crucial virulence factors, such as capsule production, we can then formulate a hypothesis on the adaptive response/responses required for this accidental human pathogen to survive. Liz discovered a major role for the virulence-related transcription factor, Gat201, in controlling Cryptococcus growth.

Liz is moving on to a postdoctoral position with Takashi Kubota at the University of Aberdeen.