Welcome to the Varahan Lab @CSIR-CCMBThe overarching goal of the lab is to understand how metabolism influences cell state transitions in microbial systems specifically in the context of microbial community development and host pathogenesis. Fungi are exemplary model systems to address this question as they exhibit a remarkable spectrum of morphological cell state transitions. We employ simple fungal models like Baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) as well as pathogenic fungal models (primarily Candida albicans & Cryptococcus neoformans) and use multidisciplinary approaches combining microbial genetics, biochemical and cell-biology based approaches in conjunction with microscopy, transcriptomics, pertinent mass-spectrometry and cell culture/animal infection models to understand how conserved metabolic events orchestrate these cell state transitions in the context of microbial community development & host pathogenesis.
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