Stephen Dolan
Clemson University, SC·Microbiology & Immunology·Early-career
Infections often involve more than one microbe, and these microbes can affect each other in ways that make disease worse. Aspergillus fumigatus is the most common and life-threatening airborne fungus that infects people with weakened defenses.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Genetics
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
Aspergillus fumigatus
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
fungal pathogen
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Feb 2027
What they work on
- Define the molecular basis of communication between Aspergillus fumigatus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, mediated by the toxins gliotoxin and hydrogen cyanide, by co-culturing them in synthetic cystic fibrosis sputum.
- Test whether clinical isolates of A. fumigatus and P. aeruginosa from chronic human infections keep the gliotoxin and hydrogen cyanide response networks seen in lab strains.
- Measure how co-infecting microbes and the host environment change A. fumigatus physiology during human cystic fibrosis infection, using advanced sequencing technologies.
- Use multi-omics approaches and reverse genetics (deleting specific genes) to identify the fungal and bacterial genes behind the physiological shifts that occur when the two pathogens grow together.
More about the research
Yet most research studies it alone, leaving open how other microbes change its behavior during infection.
Why it matters
Fungal and bacterial co-infections can make lung disease more severe in people with cystic fibrosis. Defining how Aspergillus fumigatus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa influence each other through toxic molecules could point to new treatments that disrupt these microbial interactions and improve outcomes for patients with chronic respiratory infections.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jennifer Melinda Bomberger
Dartmouth College, NH·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether TsiT, a T6SS immunity protein that resembles LysR-type gene regulators, acts as a transcriptional regulator that controls Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm formation.
Daniel J Wozniak
Ohio State University, OH·Microbiology & Immunology
Define how Psl, a secreted sugar polymer of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, suppresses Staphylococcus aureus growth and interacts with S. aureus protein A (SpA), using several complementary strategies.
William DePas
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine how the chemical environment of cystic fibrosis sputum regulates biofilm formation by nontuberculous mycobacteria and how biofilms affect antibiotic tolerance, using a new aggregation assay and MiPACT-HCR imaging.
The school
Clemson University: 19 labs on PI Pages, $339M a year on research, 297 research doctorates a year.
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