DUKE MYCOLOGY
RESEARCH UNIT
Faculty and Research
Heitman Lab Members
Banu Metin, PhD
Post-Doctoral Fellow
315 CARL Building
Box 3546 DUMC
Durham, N.C. 27710
Phone: 919.684.2809
Fax: 919.684.5458
Email: banu.metin@duke.edu |
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I received my PhD degree from Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, where I studied a polyketide biosynthesis gene cluster in Aspergillus fumigatus. While working on my PhD, I also spent four months in Professor Gillian Turgeon's laboratory at Cornell University, where I worked on two projects--one which was related to my PhD research, investigating a polyketide synthase of Cochliobolus heterostrophus, and the other focused on the evolution of mating type locus Cochliobolus heterostrophus.
I joined the Heitman lab in October 2007 and am working on the evolution of the mating type locus (MAT) in the Cryptococcus species. Specifically, characterization of the MAT locus in C. neoformans and the closest relative, C. gattii as well as studies of the MAT locus of T. wingfieldii have provided insights into how this unusual locus evolved. Currently, I am working on the characterization of MAT in a related species, C. heveanensis, which will provide the means to validate the proposed evolutionary model and lend new insights into the MAT locus structure and function. [Back to Heitman lab]
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