J. Christian Pérez
Principal investigator
Zali Akiba
Undergraduate student (Rice)
Zali is investigating the interactions between C. albicans and the intestinal mucosa. Specifically, she is exploring the function of a previously undescribed C. albicans ORF which enables colonization of the colonic mucosa.
Ella Martinez
Undergraduate student (Rice)
Ella is studying interactions between C. albicans and gut bacteria. Her project seeks to establish the basis of a recently identified antagonistic relationship between a gram-positive bacterial species and C. albicans.
Madhvi Bhakta
Graduate student
Madhvi is characterizing the natural diversity of C. albicans in the human digestive tract. Part of a collaborative effort within the TMC-GCID, her project seeks to understand the genetic basis of unique traits displayed by C. albicans isolates derived from the human gut.
Phu Nguyen
Postdoc
Phu is exploring the role of single cell gene expression heterogeneity in fungal infection biology. In another project, he is investigating the mechanisms of activation of C. albicans regulatory proteins that are critical for the fungus to colonize the host.
Trung Vu
Research Scientist
Trung is dissecting the regulatory mechanisms that turn on and off a C. albicans transcription factor implicated in commensalism and pathogenesis. In another project, he is studying host cell pathways activated by C. albicans in the intestinal epithelium.
Elena Lindemann-Perez
Senior Scientist
Elena is defining C. albicans transcriptional regulatory circuits with roles in colonization of mucosal surfaces. In another project, she is employing macrophages and intestinal organoids to probe the phenotypic diversity of C. albicans isolates derived from the human digestive tract.
Lab Alumni
Graduate students
Musfirat Shubaita (MS, 2023-2025)
Philipp Reuter-Weissenberger (2017-2021)
Marie-Therese Eckstein (2016-2020)
Valentina del Olmo Toledo (2015-2019)
Lena Boehm (2015-2019)
Prathibha Muralidhara (MS, 2014-2015)
Postdocs
Irina Jimenez Gomez (2024-2025)
Diana Rodriguez Ortega (2021-2024)
Kieu Pham (2021-2022)
Sergio Moreno-Velasquez (2017-2020)
Juliane Meir (2016-2020)
Shweta Fulsundar (2016-2017)
Pedrina Vidigal (2014-2015)
Research Assistants
Oriana Sanchez Jimenez (2023-2024)
Mazen Oneissi (2021-2023)
Hailey Nussbaum (2020-2022)
Stanley Odidika (2018-2019)
Sanda Torsin (2015 -2018)
Su Hlaing Tint (2014-2015)
Undergraduates / Interns / Visiting Students
Anna Khanov (MicroSURP 2025)
Layne Smith (MicroSURP 2024)
Cecilia Fadhel Alvarez (MicroSURP 2023)
Mara Henrich (2020)
Tobias Ludwig (2016-2017)
Sonakshi De (2014)