Christina M. Hull

Associate Professor Office: 5204B Biochemical Sciences Building 440 Henry Mall Madison WI 53706 Postal address click here Fax: (608) 262-5253 Office: (608) 265-5441 cmhull@wisc.edu The Hull Lab

Education

• B.S. 1992, University of Utah
• Ph.D. 2000, University of California - San Francisco (A.D. Johnson)
• Postdoctoral 2000-2003, Duke University (J. Heitman)

Honors & Awards

• Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fund Fellow, 2001-2003
• Burroughs Wellcome Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences, 2003-2008
• UW MERC New Investigator Award, 2005-2007
• March of Dimes Basil O'Connor Starter Scholar Research Award, 2005-2007
  

Research Summary

Despite their importance in many areas, fungi represents a woefully understudied branch in the tree of life. The consequences of this deficiency on humans are no more apparent than in our lack of understanding of human fungal pathogens. Fungi now represents the fourth most common cause of hospital-acquired infection, and therapeutic options for treating severe disease are limited. In addition, the mechanisms by which fungi reproduce and interact with the environment (including human hosts) are largely unknown.

Research in my laboratory focuses on three broad areas: 1) understanding the molecular mechanisms that control fungal development and sporulation, 2) elucidating the basic properties of spores that allow them to be infectious particles, and 3) characterizing key interactions between fungal spores and the mammalian immune response.

We use the meningitis-causing environmental fungus Cryptococcus neoformans as a model for our studies. C. neoformans causes over a million cases of disease and approximately 600,000 deaths per year worldwide. Among the human fungal pathogens C. neoformans is the most amenable to laboratory analysis and represents a relatively facile system for the study of fungal development and virulence.

Using biochemical, genetic, molecular, bioinformatic, and cell biological approaches we are elucidating the basic processes and mechanisms important for C. neoformans to undergo sexual development (gene regulation, protein-DNA interactions, transcriptional networks), determining the resistance, growth, and surface properties of spores (cell differentiation, developmental biology, carbohydrate chemistry), and investigating how spores interact with macrophages in culture and in mice (immunology, virulence).

Publications of Note

Giles, S. S., T. R. Dagenais, M. R. Botts, N. P. Keller, and C. M. Hull. 2009. Elucidating the pathogenesis of spores from the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans. Infection and Immunity 77: 3491-3500.

Stanton, B. C., S. S. Giles, C. R. Kent, C. L. Warren, E. K. Kruzel, A. Z. Ansari, and C. M. Hull. 2009. Cognate Site Identifier analysis reveals novel binding properties of the Sex Inducer homeodomain proteins of Cryptococcus neoformans. Molecular Microbiology 72: 1334-1337.

Botts, M. R., S. S. Giles, and C. M. Hull. 2009. Isolation and characterization of Cryptococcus neoformans spores reveals a critical role for capsule biosynthesis genes in spore biogenesis. Eukaryotic Cell 8: 595-605.

Kent, C. R., P. Ortiz-Bermudez, S. S. Giles, and C. M. Hull. 2008. Formulation of a defined V8 medium to induce sexual development of Cryptococcus neoformans. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 74: 6248-6253.

Dagenais, T. R., D. Chung, S. S. Giles, C. M. Hull, D. Andes, N. P. Keller. 2008. Defects in conidiophore development and conidial/macrophage interactions in a dioxygenase mutant of Aspergillus fumigatus. Infection and Immunity. 76: 3214-20.

Ekena, J. L., B. C. Stanton, J. A. Schiebe-Owens, C. M. Hull. 2008. Sexual development in C. neoformans requires CLP1, a target of the homeodomain transcription factors Sxi1alpha and Sxi2a. Eukaryotic Cell 7: 49-57.

Stanton, B. C. and C. M. Hull. 2007. Mating type locus control of cell identity. In: Sex in Fungi: Molecular Determination and Evolutionary Implications. Edited by J. Heitman, J. Kronstad, J. Taylor, and L. Casselton. ASM Press. Washington, D. C.

Hull, C. M. 2006. Single gene control of a complex phenotype hangs in the balance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103: 12659-12660.

Lin, X., C. M. Hull, and J. Heitman. 2005. Sexual reproduction between partners of the same mating type in Cryptococcus neoformans. Nature 434: 1017-1021.

Hull, C. M., M-J. Boily, and J. Heitman. 2005. The cell type-specific homeodomain proteins Sxi1alpha and Sxi2a coordinately regulate sexual development in Cryptococcus neoformans. Eukaryotic Cell 4: 526-535.

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University of Wisconsin - Department of Biomolecular Chemistry
Last updated: 21 August 2009 Email Biomolecular Chemistry
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