ALISTAIR J P BROWN
Al Brown’s team combines genomics, proteomics, molecular and cell biology and modelling to study the adaption of the fungal pathogen, Candida albicans, to dynamic and complex niches during host colonisation and infection. Most recently, he has been studying how this major fungal pathogen exploits host signals to trigger anticipatory responses that promote fitness in vivo via proactive immune evasion strategies which protect against impending attack from our immune defences.
Selected publications:
Childers, D.S., Raziunaite, I., Mol Avelar, G., Potrykus, J., Budge, S., Stead, D., Gow, N.A.R, Lenardon, M., Ballou, E.R., MacCallum, D.M. and Brown, A.J.P. (2016) The rewiring of metabolic ubiquitination targets in a pathogenic yeast promotes metabolic flexibility, host colonization and virulence. PLoS Pathogens 12, e1005566.
Ballou, E.R., Avelar, G.M., Childers, D.S., Mackie, J., Bain, J.M., Wagener, J., Kastora, S.L., Panea, M.D., Hardison, S.E., Walker, L.A., Erwig, L.P., Munro, C.A., Gow, N.A.R., Brown, G.D., MacCallum, D.M. and Brown, A.J.P. (2016) Lactate signalling regulates fungal β-glucan masking and immune evasion. Nature Microbiology 2, 16238.
Pradhan, A., Avelar, G., Bain, J.M., Childers, D., Larcombe, D.E., Netea, M.G., Shekhova, E., Munro, C.A., Brown, G.D., Erwig, L.P., Gow, N.A.R. and Brown, A.J.P. (2018) Hypoxia promotes immune evasion by triggering β-glucan masking on the Candida albicans cell surface via mitochondrial and cAMP-protein kinase A signalling. mBio 9, e01318-18.
Brown, A.J.P., Gow, N.A.R., Warris, A., and Brown, G.D. (2019) Memory in fungal pathogens promotes immune evasion, colonisation and infection. Trends in Microbiology 27, 219-230.
Pradhan, A., Avelar, G.M., Bain, J.M., Childers, D., Pelletier, C., Larcombe, D.E., Shekhova, E., Netea, M.G., Brown, G.D., Erwig, L.P., Gow, N.A.R. and Brown, A.J.P. (2019) Non-canonical signalling mediates changes in fungal cell wall PAMPs that drive immune evasion. Nature Communications 10, 5315
Childers, D.S., Avelar, G.M., Bain, J.M., Pradhan, A., Larcombe, D.E., Netea, M.G., Erwig, L.P., Gow, N.A.R. and Brown, A.J.P. (2020) Epitope shaving promotes fungal immune evasion. mBio 11, e00984-20.
Supervised Projects: