Wendy Watford
University of Georgia, GA·Microbiology & Immunology
Cryptococcus neoformans is a fungus that the World Health Organization (WHO) lists as a top critical-priority pathogen. It can infect the brain and its surrounding membranes, causing cryptococcal meningoencephalitis.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
Cryptococcus neoformans
cryptococcosis
cryptococcal meningoencephalitis
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jan 2028
What they work on
- Identify which immune cell types are required for protection when CD4+ T cell-deficient mice, a model of AIDS, are vaccinated with ZNF2oe, a harmless filament-forming Cryptococcus strain that overproduces the Znf2 regulator.
- Define the cytokine profiles, the patterns of immune signaling molecules, that accompany ZNF2oe vaccine-induced protection against lethal cryptococcal infection in hosts lacking CD4+ T cells.
- Establish correlates of protection, immune features that track with surviving infection, to guide future subunit protein or nucleic acid-based vaccines against cryptococcal meningoencephalitis.
More about the research
The disease kills hundreds of thousands of people each year and accounts for more than 15% of deaths among people with AIDS. Even with antifungal drugs, about 70% of patients die. No vaccine is available or in clinical trials. Most patients have very low counts of CD4+ T cells, the helper immune cells that are depleted in AIDS. This raises the question of whether a vaccine could protect them at all.
Why it matters
People living with AIDS and others with low CD4+ T cell counts are most at risk of dying from cryptococcal meningoencephalitis, and no vaccine exists. By identifying immune cells and signals that can protect even when CD4+ T cell counts are low, this work could guide the design of safer protein- or nucleic acid-based vaccines for these vulnerable groups.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Stuart Levitz
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, MA·Microbiology & Immunology
Test how well each of seven recombinant cryptococcal proteins, combined with the adjuvant CAF01, protects mice against virulent Cryptococcus strains found around the world.
Jessica Hargarten
Rutgers University-New Brunswick, NJ·Microbiology & Immunology·Early-career
Characterize how deficiency in MTOR, the signaling enzyme that senses nutrients and controls immune cell growth and metabolism, affects susceptibility to Cryptococcus infection using established murine models of pulmonary and central nervous system cryptococcosis.
Arturo Casadevall
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Microbiology & Immunology
Establish how Cryptococcus neoformans melanizes its cell wall, including the vesicle-based pathway (small membrane bubbles) that exports melanin outside the cell.
The school
University of Georgia: 27 labs on PI Pages, $628M a year on research, 598 research doctorates a year.
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