Life-threatening fungal infections are on the rise as populations with weakened or suppressed immune systems increase. At the same time, climate change is predicted to increase the dispersal of fungal spores in the environment and to select for fungi adapted to growth at high temperatures, thus increasing the likelihood of human infection. We recently discovered that heat stress increases drug resistance and the overall mutation rate in the major disease-causing fungus Cryptococcus. Specifically, we found that the movement of some mobile genetic elements, called transposons or ‘jumping genes,’ is stimulated by heat stress at human body temperature. These movements result in genetic mutations that can alter gene function and/or expression and lead to adaptation. The goal of our research is to understand how pathogenic fungi adapt in response to stress to survive the environment-to-host transition, develop drug resistance and cause persistent human disease.

Dr. Asiya Gusa earned her PhD in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from Emory University studying bacterial pathogenesis with Dr. June R. Scott. She transitioned to studying genome instability in yeast as a postdoc with Dr. Sue Jinks-Robertson at Duke University. At Duke, Dr. Gusa received training through the Tri-Institutional Molecular Mycology and Pathogenesis Training Program and is currently supported on a K99/R00 fellowship funded by the NIH/NIAID. Dr. Gusa’s research focuses on stress adaptation in Cryptococcus, a human fungal pathogen that can causes invasive diseases in individuals with weakened or suppressed immune systems. She is excited to begin her appointment as Assistant Professor in the Duke School of Medicine’s Molecular Genetics and Microbiology department in May of 2023.

Honors

• Azrieli Global Scholar, Fungal Kingdom: Threats & Opportunities, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), 2023-25
  • Duke Azrieli Global Scholar News Story
• Whitehead Scholar, Duke University, 2023-28
• American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) MOSAIC Scholar, 2022-26
• mBio Junior Editorial Board Member, American Society for Microbiology (ASM), 2022-24
  • Duke MGM mBio News Story
• NIH/NIAID K99 Award Recipient 2022 “Stress-induced transposon mobilization in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus”

A bit about me…. 

How would you describe your professional journey? 

My journey has not followed a traditional path. I am the first generation to graduate college in my family, introduced to academic research in high school through a program at Ohio State University that sought to increase the representation of URM students in the research sciences. I developed a passion for microbiology and the study of infectious diseases at Miami University in Oxford, OH, where I attended school on a full merit Harrison Scholarship. My interest in microbiology was further kindled during a one-year fellowship at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention studying emerging infectious diseases with Dr. Rob Massung. I then went on to complete a PhD in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Emory University with Dr. June R. Scott, studying gene regulation of virulence factors in group A streptococcus (causative agent of strep throat). I was supported by a UNCF-Merck fellowship as a graduate student and I completed two summer internships at Merck in the Natural Products and Drug Discovery group with Dr. Annaliesa Anderson (now VP and Head of Vaccine R&D at Pfizer).

During a short postdoc at Emory studying antimicrobial resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae with Dr. William Shafer, I gained teaching training in Chemistry at Spelman College with Dr. Lisa Hubbard. I then took time away from my career to be a full-time stay-at-home parent to our then young children. As the kids transitioned to elementary school, I returned to work as a high school science teacher, first at Durham Academy in NC, and then for five years at Carolina Friends School. There, I taught Chemistry and introduced courses on Microbiology, Biotechnology and Forensic Science. I took students on field trips to UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State to visit research labs and I advocated for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the school. By my final year at Carolina Friends School, a full-time Diversity Director position was created and we hired the school’s first African American female Head of School.

Although I loved teaching, I missed research a great deal, and my students and family challenged me to find a path back to pursuing my dreams of a research career. With help from my mother-in-law who retired and moved close to us, I reached out to Dr. Sue Jinks-Robertson in Duke MGM, and she graciously accepted me into her lab where I resumed my postdoctoral training in 2018.

The MGM faculty, trainees and department were amazingly supportive in my journey back to research and I am thrilled to resume a career at the forefront of science discovery!

Advise/ wisdom you would share with graduate or undergraduate students from your experience?  

Find what you love to do and don’t feel constrained by expectations. There is a path forward in whatever you choose to pursue as long as you are willing to put in the work.

Embrace the decisions that are best for your life’s journey so that you don’t have regrets.

Personal life? Family / kids? and what do you like to do in spare time? 

I am a people person, love to laugh, travel and to host gatherings with family and friends. I am a foodie and lover of good wine and tea. I married my high school sweetheart, Adem Gusa (Director of Planning & Design at Duke University) and have two amazing and gifted teenagers. As my teenagers finish high school and move on to college, I am looking forward to building my lab family!

Gusa A, Yadav V, Roth C, Williams JD, Shouse EM, Magwene P, Heitman J, Jinks-Robertson S. Genome-wide analysis of heat stress-stimulated transposon mobility in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus deneoformans. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2023 Jan 24;120(4):e2209831120. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2209831120. Epub 2023 Jan 20. PMID: 36669112; PMCID: PMC9942834. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36669112/

Fu C, Davy A, Holmes S, Sun S, Yadav V, Gusa A, Coelho MA, Heitman J. Dynamic genome plasticity during unisexual reproduction in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus deneoformans. PLoS Genet. 2021 Nov 29;17(11):e1009935. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1009935. PMID: 34843473; PMCID: PMC8670703. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34843473/

Gusa A, Williams JD, Cho JE, Averette AF, Sun S, Shouse EM, Heitman J, Alspaugh JA, Jinks-Robertson S. Transposon mobilization in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus is mutagenic during infection and promotes drug resistance in vitro. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 May 5;117(18):9973-9980. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2001451117. Epub 2020 Apr 17. PMID: 32303657; PMCID: PMC7211991. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32303657/

Gusa A, Jinks-Robertson S. Mitotic Recombination and Adaptive Genomic Changes in Human Pathogenic Fungi. Genes (Basel). 2019 Nov 7;10(11):901. doi: 10.3390/genes10110901. PMID: 31703352; PMCID: PMC6895784. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31703352/

Balthazar JT, Gusa A, Martin LE, Choudhury B, Carlson R, Shafer WM. Lipooligosaccharide Structure is an Important Determinant in the Resistance of Neisseria Gonorrhoeae to Antimicrobial Agents of Innate Host Defense. Front Microbiol. 2011 Feb 18;2:30. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2011.00030. PMID: 21747781; PMCID: PMC3128933. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21747781/

Gusa AA, Froehlich BJ, Desai D, Stringer V, Scott JR. CovR activation of the dipeptide permease promoter (PdppA) in Group A Streptococcus. J Bacteriol. 2007 Feb;189(4):1407-16. doi: 10.1128/JB.01036-06. Epub 2006 Sep 22. PMID: 16997962; PMCID: PMC1797356. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16997962/

Gusa AA, Gao J, Stringer V, Churchward G, Scott JR. Phosphorylation of the group A Streptococcal CovR response regulator causes dimerization and promoter-specific recruitment by RNA polymerase. J Bacteriol. 2006 Jul;188(13):4620-6. doi: 10.1128/JB.00198-06. PMID: 16788170; PMCID: PMC1482990. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16788170/

Gao J, Gusa AA, Scott JR, Churchward G. Binding of the global response regulator protein CovR to the sag promoter of Streptococcus pyogenes reveals a new mode of CovR-DNA interaction. J Biol Chem. 2005 Nov 25;280(47):38948-56. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M506121200. Epub 2005 Sep 20. PMID: 16174772. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16174772/

Gusa AA, Scott JR. The CovR response regulator of group A streptococcus (GAS) acts directly to repress its own promoter. Mol Microbiol. 2005 Jun;56(5):1195-207. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2005.04623.x. PMID: 15882414. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15882414/

Bjöersdorff A, Bagert B, Massung RF, Gusa A, Eliasson I. Isolation and characterization of two European strains of Ehrlichia phagocytophila of equine origin. Clin Diagn Lab Immunol. 2002 Mar;9(2):341-3. doi: 10.1128/cdli.9.2.341-343.2002. PMID: 11874874; PMCID: PMC119922. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11874874/

Massung RF, Lee K, Mauel M, Gusa A. Characterization of the rRNA genes of Ehrlichia chaffeensis and Anaplasma phagocytophila. DNA Cell Biol. 2002 Aug;21(8):587-96. doi: 10.1089/104454902320308960. PMID: 12215262. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12215262/

Gusa AA, Buller RS, Storch GA, Huycke MM, Machado LJ, Slater LN, Stockham SL, Massung RF. Identification of a p28 gene in Ehrlichia ewingii: evaluation of gene for use as a target for a species-specific PCR diagnostic assay. J Clin Microbiol. 2001 Nov;39(11):3871-6. doi: 10.1128/JCM.39.11.3871-3876.2001. PMID: 11682500; PMCID: PMC88457. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11682500/