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Felipe Santiago-Tirado

Associate Professor

Associate Professor
Office
278 Galvin Life Science Center/Freimann Life Science Center
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Email
fsantiag@nd.edu

Website

Research Interests:

Fungal infections are an underappreciated global public health crisis, with over 80 million people suffering from an invasive fungal infection every year. These infections are among the most difficult to treat diseases, not only due to a lack of effective antifungals, but also due to an incomplete understanding of their pathogenesis, resulting in 3.75 million deaths yearly (https://gaffi.org/why/fungal-disease-frequency/). Because of this high medical burden, the WHO recently published its first Fungal Priority Pathogens List, and in our lab we study three of the four causative agents in the top priority of the WHO list: the ubiquitous environmental fungus Cryptococcus neoformans, the commensal fungus Candida albicans, and the emergent multidrug resistant Candidozyma auris. Regarding C. neoformans, we specifically study and address questions related to how it establishes an infection and disseminates to cause life-threatening disease. We are specifically interested in the unique cell biology of this fungus, such as its ability to grow intracellularly, cross cellular barriers, and secrete immunomodulatory molecules, all of which are the main drivers of the disease. In terms of C. albicans and C. auris, we collaborate with Dr. Flores-Mireles, a leader in urinary tract infections, to study how these fungal species take advantage of medical advances to cause disease, using the urinary catheter as a model. Overall, due to medical advances such as organ transplants or steroid treatments, and the use of medical devices like catheters, the incidence of these infections is steadily increasing, and given the current inappropriate treatment and management, there is a pressing need to study these infections to come up with better ways to treat, or prevent, them.

Biography:

  • Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 2026 – Present
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 2018 – 2026
  • Staff Research Scientist, Molecular Microbiology Department, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 2017 – 2018
  • Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) Advanced Course, Molecular Mycology: Current Approaches to Fungal Pathogenesis, MBL, Woods Hole, MA 2013
  • Postdoctoral Researcher, Molecular Microbiology Department, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 2012 – 2017
  • Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 2011 – 2012
  • PhD, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 2011

Selected Publications:

 

For a complete list of publications, see My Bibliography at PubMed here.

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Primary Research Areas:

  • Cellular & Molecular Biology
  • Infectious & Vector-Borne Diseases
  • Microbiology & Immunology

Research Specialties:

  • Fungal-host interactions
  • Cryptococcal pathogenesis
  • Intracellular survival of Cryptococcus neoformans
  • Cryptococcal virulence factors
  • Membrane trafficking
  • Cellular secretory pathways
  • Yeast genetics
  • Cell polarity