Laura Okagaki

E-mail: okag0004@umn.edu

Year entered: 2007

Degree received:
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Photography, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, 1999
B.S., Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 2006

Honors and Awards:

• Graduate School Block Fellowship, Fall Semester 2007

Thesis Research:

I am studying mating type and virulence in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans. C. neoformans is an important and deadly infection in patients with immune suppression. Most frequently seen in AIDS patients, C. neoformans can cross the blood brain barrier and causes meningeoencephalitis. There are two mating types in C. neoformans, a and a. The vast majority of clinical isolates have been identified as a mating type. The two mating types show similar virulence and dissemination to the brain during an individual infection. However, during an infection with both a and a mating types, the a mating type is found more frequently in the central nervous system. My work is to identify genes that are downstream targets for pheromone signaling in vivo and pinpoint which genes play a role in crossing the blood-brain barrier.