Fungal Genomics & Biology
Open Access

Guanghua Huang

Biography

Dr. Huang graduated from Southwest University (Chongqing, China) with a bachelor in Agronomy in 1999. He is a graduate of Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and received his doctorate in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2006. He did his post-doctoral training in Prof. David R.Soll’s lab at the University of Iowa during 2007 to 2011.

Research Interest

The Huang laboratory focuses on studying the molecular mechanisms of morphogenesis, pathogenesis and sexual reproduction in Candida albicans, a major fungal pathogen of humans. C. albicans causes a number of infections in both immunocompetent and immunocompromised hosts. C. albicans is a diploid fungus that undergoes reversible phenotypic transition under many conditions including high temperature, neutral pH, high CO2 concentration and hypoxia. It has been proven that the ability to undergo phenotypic transition is relevant to its virulence. The fundamental questions we ask are:

Why does C. albicans undergo phenotypic switching Or what is the biological significance of phenotypic switching?

What are the mechanisms of phenotypic switching?

Our current research focuses on three aspects:
(1) Gene circuits involved in governing morphogenesis and pathogenesis in C. albicans;
(2) Effect of host microenvironmental cues on the induction of morphogenesis;
(3) Host C.albicans pathogenic interactions.