Dr. Martin Hirst discusses how epigenetics can unlock new cancer treatments, the value of large epigenetic datasets, and the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Academic Job Category Faculty Non Bargaining Job Title Postdoctoral Research Fellow - Host-Pathogen Interactions & Host-Directed Therapeutics Department Research I Sun I Department of Microbiology...

Dr. Maria Tokuyama's team reports new vaginal models that can become infected with sexually transmitted viruses and respond to antiviral drugs.

A study led by Dr. Bob Hancock finds that programming of the immune system in the first week of life unfolds uniquely in separate geographic cohorts of newborns

A new study finds that integrating course material into a narrative comic format is a powerful way to help students grasp challenging microbiology concepts.

Information and resources on the 2026 Hantavirus Outbreak Public Health Agency of Canada A statement on the Andes hantavirus situation from The Public Health Agency of Canada, along with other Governm...

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Alumna Dr. Morgan Roberts reflects on her views on the marriage between basic and translational research and the importance of remaining open to the unexpected.

UBC recognizes six Science faculty members for research excellence, with two of the university's top prizes awarded to Dr. Curtis Suttle and Dr. Jess McIver.

Through collaboration and knowledge exchange, the Lab Accessibility in Science Project team works to make laboratory courses accessible to all students.

François Jean's team has discovered two chemical compounds with potent and wide-ranging antiviral activity that protect mice from influenza A infection.

UBC researchers have engineered gut bacteria that dim their fluorescent glow in the presence of illness.

New preclinical research suggests bowel preparation for colonoscopies may temporarily alter gut balance, with unappreciated effects in at-risk patients.

Redox sensing and regulation are critical to both the survival and virulence strategies used by the pathogenic fungus Cryptococcus neoformans to evade host immunity and establish infection. However, the precise genetic and biochemical mechanisms driving these redox regulation systems in the context of fungal virulence are unclear. To address this limitation, we designed genetically encoded redox sensors optimized for expression in C. neoformans and linked these sensors to cryptococcal redox proteins for real-time monitoring of intracellular redox status. Using these sensors, we established several fluorescence-based techniques for monitoring dose-responsive changes in the intracellular oxidation status of C. neoformans under stress. Specifically, we demonstrated sensor responsiveness to nontoxic doses of peroxide stress and during different stages of cell growth, and we verified sensor responsiveness in a mutant with known sensitivity to oxidative stress. This approach provides a framework for developing and deploying biosensors in pathogenic fungi and in basidiomycetes─a group of microorganisms with relatively few sophisticated genetic tools for molecular and synthetic biology. Overall, our sensors enable real-time insights into the key redox mechanisms driving growth and survival of a globally important pathogen and pave the way for tool development in other fungi.