M. A. Hickman

Tetraploidy accelerates adaptation under drug-selection in a fungal pathogen

This study shows that tetraploid Candida albicans adapts faster and achieves higher drug resistance than diploid strains under caspofungin selection.

Host association induces genome changes in Candida albicans which alters its virulence

This study shows host association induces genome changes in Candida albicans, affecting virulence, with strain-specific variations in magnitude and type of changes.

The NAD+-dependent deacetylase Sir2 enables evolution of new traits by regulating distinct gene sets in two yeast species, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Kluyveromyces lactis

This study shows that sirtuin deacetylases regulate distinct gene sets in two yeast species, enabling adaptive responses to low NAD+ stress through species-specific transcriptional rewiring.

A novel virulence phenotype rapidly assesses Candida fungal pathogenesis in healthy and immunocompromised Caenorhabditis elegans hosts

This study introduces a lineage growth assay to assess fungal virulence in C. elegans, showing differences in host fitness between healthy and immunocompromised hosts infected with Candida species.