Research Opportunities in Molecular Pathogenesis
Undergraduate Research Training
Students that have mastered general chemistry principles and are interested in research in the fields of biochemistry, biology, genetics or microbiology are eligible for research opportunities in microbial pathogenesis in the Sundstrom laboratory.
Graduate Training
Training toward a Ph.D. with a concentration in Microbial Pathogenesis exists through the Molecular and Cellular Biology Graduate Program.
Postdoctoral Training
A post-doctoral opportunity is available to study the epigenetic processes involving the interplay between specific transcription factors and chromatin structure that activate the expression of hypha-specific genes during hyphal growth conditions and are repressive during yeast growth conditions. The exact locations of binding factors and chromatin changes that affect the accessibility of the DNA to transcription factors and the transcriptional machinery that lead to the dramatic up-regulation during hyphal growth conditions will be determined using next generation sequencing technologies now available at Dartmouth Medical School. The results will be used to ascertain common patterns of DNA occupancy, accessibility and chromatin structure epigenomically during the bud-hypha transition in Candida albicans.
Technician Opportunity
This position involves performing experiments that will help understand how C. albicans invades the stratified squamous epithelium of human hosts using genetic, biochemical and animal model approaches. One aspect of the work will be preparing C. albicans strains with gene disruptions, engineered mutations and other alterations for use in laboratory assays and animal experiments. General molecular techniques involving PCR and primer design, ligation reactions, enzyme digests, agarose gel and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, electroporation of C. albicans followed by selection on antibiotic containing media and strain verification using Southern blotting will be required. Indirect immunofluorescence assays and Western blotting will be used to monitor gene expression of specific proteins of interest and incubation of strains with cultures of human keratinocytes will also be performed. Other aspects of the position involve experiments to advance the understanding of gene regulatory mechanisms and will include preparation of nuclei from yeast, micrococcal nuclease assays, preparation of DNA for deep sequencing experiments, Northern blotting, fluorescence assays to measure levels of green fluorescent reporter protein in yeast strains as well as examining the phenotypes of constructed strains in various C. albicans growth conditions.