Frans Klis
Research interests
Candida albicans is an opportunistic pathogenic fungus that inhabits the mucosal layers of the human body but can cause fatal systemic infections when the immune system deteriorates. Its walls are covered by a dense coat of 20-30 different covalently linked proteins, which interact with host cells and help to counteract various forms of environmental stress. In our studies we focus on: (1) characterization and regulation of the wall proteome under infection-related stress conditions; (2) functions of individual wall proteins; (3) identification of vaccine antigens based on wall proteins, and (4) identification of diagnostic markers based on secretome proteins.
Keywords: fungal wall, Candida albicans, iron acquisition, wall proteome, secretome, wall stress responses, stress physiology, vaccine development, diagnostic markers
EU Consortium FINSysB
General overview of our research
FinSysB Movie
FCWB 2012 Meeting
Publications
For a general overview go to:
http://www.researcherid.com/rid/B-9085-2008
Alternatively, use Entrez-PubMed and type in <Klis fungal>.
For recent reviews, see
1. Klis FM, Boorsma A, De Groot PW (2006). Cell wall construction in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Yeast 23:185-202.
2. Klis FM, Sosinska GJ, de Groot PW, Brul S (2009). Covalently linked cell wall proteins of Candida albicans and their role in fitness and virulence. FEMS Yeast Res 9:1013-1028
3. Yin QY, deGroot PW, de Koster CG, Klis FM (2008). Mass spectrometry-based proteomics of fungal wall glycoproteins. Trends in Microbiol 16: 20-26.
4. Klis FM, de Koster CG, Brul S (2011) A mass spectrometric view of the fungal wall proteome. Future Microbiology 6: 941-951
Klis et al. 2006
Yin et al. 2008
Editorial Boards
Eukaryotic Cell
FEMS Yeast Research
YEAST
Financial support
My research is supported by the EU Marie Curie Program FINSysB (http://www.finsysb.eu/). The two graduate students involved in this Program areAlice Sorgo (A.G.Sorgo@uva.nl) and Clemens Heilmann (C.J.Heilmann@uva.nl).
EU Consortium FINSysB
Alice Sorgo
Internships
How does Candida albicans respond to different forms of infection-related stress?
The cell wall of Candida albicans, an opportunistic pathogenic fungus, is of fundamental importance for its fitness, virulence and stress tolerance. We want to analyze how C. albicans responds to fluconazole-generated stress and to iron restriction by investigating the changes in the wall proteome and the secretome and the role of various transcription factors in these changes. This will lead to understanding the regulatory circuits that control the cell surface properties of C. albicans and to the identification of new diagnostic markers and antigens for vaccine development.
Recent publication: Sorgo et al. (2011) Eukaryotic Cell 10: 1071-1081
Techniques: culturing pathogenic organisms, growth experiments, drug sensitivity assays, metabolic labeling, real-time RT-PCR for transcript analysis, quantitative mass spectrometry (FT-MS) and data analysis
Clemens Heilmann
Internships
Development of new vaccines against candidosis
Clemens studies the cell wall proteome of Candida albicans. He wants to determine the absolute copy number of individual cell wall proteins and to establish which cell wall proteins and which protein domains are the best candidates for vaccine development. This project is carried out in close collaboration with Dr Leo de Koning of the Mass Spectrometry Department of SILS. For traineeships contact Clemens directly at C.J.Heilmann@uva.nl or contact Frans Klis, Leo de Koning, or Stanley Brul.
Recent publication: Heilmann et al. (2011) Microbiology 157: 2297-2307
Techniques: culturing of pathogenic microorganisms, purification of cell walls, liquid chromatography, Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometry, relative quantification of proteins, metabolic labeling, construction of Q-concat proteins, vaccine testing
Linkedin
Website of my department
Head: Prof. Dr. Stanley Brul
SILS-MBMFS