Karen Norris
University of Georgia, GA·Microbiology & Immunology
Fungal infections are becoming more common, antifungal drugs are limited, and drug resistance is rising, yet no fungal vaccine has been approved. People at risk of serious fungal disease are often vulnerable to several fungi at once, so a vaccine against a single species may not protect them.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
fungal vaccine
recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis
vaginal yeast infection
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2031
What they work on
- Test whether the NXT-2 vaccine, a lab-made peptide based on a fungal protein shared across species, triggers strong immune responses in nonhuman primates.
- Optimize an NXT-2 immunization protocol that protects against repeated vaginal Candida albicans infection in a nonhuman primate model of recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis.
- Measure infection levels with the lab's quantitative protocols to judge whether NXT-2 prevents or reduces recurrent yeast infection in vaccinated primates.
More about the research
The lab's long-term goal is a "pan-fungal" vaccine that protects against many fungal pathogens.
Why it matters
RVVC affects an estimated 140 million people worldwide each year, causing lasting discomfort and higher healthcare costs, and current drugs are suboptimal. A vaccine that prevents or treats recurrent yeast infections could help these women, and a broadly protective fungal vaccine could also benefit patients at risk of life-threatening infections from several fungi.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Micah McClain
Duke University, NC·Medicine & Clinical Research
Track how the blood immune response changes over the course of invasive candidiasis, using bulk RNA-sequencing of serial whole-blood samples from three existing patient biobanks.
Ronda Rolfes
Georgetown University, DC·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether inositol pyrophosphates, energy-rich signaling molecules, control the PHO pathway that maintains phosphate balance when Candida albicans faces phosphate limitation.
Shankar Thangamani
Purdue University, IN·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine how resident skin bacteria and other skin microbiota directly inhibit the growth and skin colonization of Candida auris, a drug-resistant yeast that spreads between hospitalized patients.
The school
University of Georgia: 27 labs on PI Pages, $628M a year on research, 598 research doctorates a year.
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