Fungal Genomics & Biology
Open Access

Fang Cao

Biography

Dr. Cao received her PhD degree from Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry, CAS in 2006. Her PhD research work is mainly on the molecular mechanisms of morphogenesis and pathogenesis of Candida albicans. She then started her postdoctoral training in the University of Michigan Since 2007. Dr. Cao has completed one grant from National Natural Science Foundation of China as principal investigator. She is currently playing a critical role in SU2C grant ‘Targeting MLL in acute leukemia. Dr. Cao holds one issued China patent and one pending US patent. She regularly reviews manuscripts for PLOS ONE and Journal of Cancer therapy.

Research Interest

Dr. Cao’s broad research interests are mechanisms of chromatin regulation and transcription network. A major emphasis of her research has been to understand how signaling pathways that are involved in the dimorphic regulation are regulated in Candida albicans, one of the most frequently isolated fungal pathogens in humans. It causes a wide variety of infections ranging from mucosal infections in generally healthy people to life-threatening systemic infections in immunocompromised individuals. Another emphasis is to characterize the function of mixed lineage leukemia (MLL) protein in leukemogenesis and to develop agents that target MLL methyltransferase activity.