1:00pm, Monday, 14 March
Room BIG13, Ground Floor
Biochemistry Building
710 Cumberland St
Zoom
https://otago.zoom.us/j/98929322137?pwd=VWRlR2xMTkRvSzhkVy90ZG4waFpqUT09
Password: micro
Dr Yasmeen Ruma
Sir John Walsh Research Institute, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Otago
‘Characterisation of Candida parapsilosis CYP51 as a drug target’
Fungal infections affect over a billion people every year, resulting in more than 1.5 million deaths. Treatment failure due to antifungal resistance is a major concern, thus necessitating the discovery of newer broad spectrum antifungals. My research has the goal of structure-directed antifungal discovery, with the main focus on Azole drugs and their target, lanosterol 14α-demethylase (CYP51), from two opportunistic fungal pathogens Candida parapsilosis and Cryptococcus neoformans. In this seminar, analysis of the functional full-length C. parapsilosis CYP51 and its resistance causing mutation, Y132F expressed in S. cerevisiae will be described.
