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Asked by Annis to Danielle on 19 Jan 2022.
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Danielle Nader answered on 19 Jan 2022:
My PhD actually started by studying the fungus Candida albicans. This fungus naturally lives in our mouth, skin, and gut. But when we take too many antibiotics, or recently came out of surgery (any cases where the body is immunocompromised) Candida overgrows past its normal amounts and starts to invade our cells. When this happens, the fungus can get into our bloodstream and it is very very difficult to treat.
The project essentially focuses on figuring out how Candida is recognizing our cells and what protein it uses to attach to these cells. We also looked into what pathways are triggered in our cells when they become infected. Also, we developed a drug compound that prevents Candida from invading the cells.
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Comments
Laura commented on :
For my Masters degree, I was looking at cells that make human heart vessels and how they interact with a group of drugs called Ivermectins. I found that each drug activated the cells in a way that made the vessels relax, but each drug did this in a different way. What we found meant that these drugs could be used to treat common heart conditions like high blood pressure!
Chris commented on :
I mostly work in climate science, and still do. But it has taken second place to my work on Covid since the pandemic started.