DUKE MYCOLOGY
RESEARCH UNIT
Faculty and Research
Joseph Heitman, MD, PhD
James B. Duke Professor
Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
Director, Center for Microbial Pathogenesis
Director, Duke University Program in Genetics and Genomics
lab members •
alumni • publications • website
Biography:
Joseph Heitman was an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, where
he studied chemistry and biochemistry and was converted to molecular biology.
He then matriculated as an MD-PhD student at Cornell and Rockefeller
Universities and worked with Peter Model and Norton Zinder on how restriction
enzymes recognize specific DNA sequences and how bacteria respond to and repair
DNA breaks and nicks. Dr. Heitman moved as an EMBO fellow to the Biocenter in
Basel Switzerland where in studies with Mike Hall he initiated the use of yeast
as a model for studies of immunosuppressive drug action. Dr. Heitman moved to
Duke in 1992, and is a member of the Department of Molecular Genetics and
Microbiology where his studies focus on how cells sense and respond to the
environment.
Dr. Heitman and colleagues focus on the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae
and Cryptococcus neoformans, and their studies have revealed general
principles of signal transduction that control cell development. Their efforts
are now increasingly devoted to Cryptococcus neoformans as a model pathogen,
and focus on the calcineurin, cAMP-protein kinase A, and MAP kinase cascades that
control mating and virulence, the structure and function of the mating type locus,
and the role of sexual recombination in the evolution of virulence.
Dr. Heitman is a recipient of the Burroughs Wellcome Scholar Award in
Molecular Pathogenic Mycology (1998-2005), the 2002 ASBMB AMGEN award for
significant contributions using molecular biology to our understanding of
human disease, and the 2003 Squibb Award from the Infectious Diseases
Society of America (IDSA) for outstanding contributions to infectious disease research. He has served as an instructor in residence since 1998 for
the Molecular Mycology Course at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods
Hole, MA. Dr. Heitman is an editor for the journals Eukaryotic Cell, Fungal
Genetics and Biology, PLoS Pathogens, and Current Genetics; a member of the editorial boards
of PLoS Biology, Current Biology, and Cell Host and Microbe; an advisory board member for the Fungal
Genome Initiative at the Broad Institute and for the Fungal Kingdom Genome Project at the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute; and serves on the awards committee of the Infectious
Diseases Society of America. He was elected a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) in 2003, a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) in 2003, a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 2004, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2004, and to the Association of American Physicians (AAP) in 2006. Dr. Heitman was an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 1992 to 2005. |
