Logan Morse
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Research Mentor(s): Teresa O’Meara
Co-Presenter:
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Microbiology and Immunology / Medicine
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: Session 3 – 1:40pm – 2:30 pm
Room: League Ballroom
Authors:
Presenter: 114
Abstract
Candida auris is a newly discovered fungal pathogen that is of global and clinical concern. Fungi typically do not transmit from human to human, however, Candida auris does, leading to frequent outbreaks in clinical settings such as hospitals. This, coupled with a few other factors such as a 30%-60% mortality rate, increased thermal tolerance which allows it to survive in the human body, and the ability to survive up to seven days on steel and porous surfaces and up to fourteen days on plastics surfaces, has stirred noticeable interest from the scientific and public health community. Due to this we studied the adhesion, desiccation, and temperature resistance of Candida auris which are all factors that may contribute to the transmission of this organism. Due to C. auris being understudied within the scientific community, when trying to identify genes that regulate adhesion, desiccation, and temperature tolerance we used a novel forward genetics approach in which random mutations are created in the organism’s genome in order to determine if there are any phenotypes associated with the gene. After determining which genes we wanted to focus on, we then used a novel reverse genetics approach in order to confirm whether the gene was associated with the phenotype demonstrated. We successfully identified and deleted the IFF3 gene, which our research suggests is a contributing factor to C. auris’s adhesion phenotype. Along with this, we also developed assays to test desiccation and thermal tolerance of C. auris. We are further researching which genes are associated with desiccation and temperature resistance of C. auris. All of this together helps us to understand the complexity of how Candida auris is transmitted from human to human and offers building blocks for future paths of research to block these modes of transmission.
Biomedical Sciences, Interdisciplinary, Natural/Life Sciences
