August 2026 AMS virtual seminar: Bridget Walker, on the adaptation of human-pathogenic yeast!

We invite you to attend our upcoming AMS virtual seminar. This month, we're delighted to feature Bridget Walker, a researcher in the School of BioSciences at the University of Melbourne.

Making a home out of a macrophage? How does Talaromyces marneffei adapt to the human host?

Bridget Walker

School of BioSciences,

University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Thursday, 27 August 2026

12 pm (AEST) / 2 pm (NZST) 

Register here

Summary

Talaromyces marneffei is thermally dimorphic fungus which quickly emerged as a threat to human health and is now classified as a priority fungal pathogen by the World Health Organisation. The fungus exhibits an environmental hyphal form at 25°C and a pathogenic yeast form within macrophages at 37°C. These pathogenic yeast cells are not cleared by macrophages. Instead, they continue to proliferate and survive within them, likely using these cells to shield themselves from other immune defences. To understand how the pathogen persists within macrophages, we have investigated the metabolic profiles of T. marneffei hyphae and yeast, finding that the pathogen undergoes significant metabolic reprogramming during its morphological transition, and that changes in metabolic gene expression are driven by both nutrient and host signals. This work suggests that strict metabolic gene regulation allows T. marneffei to thrive within these immune cells and likely underlies its ability to cause human disease.

About Bridget

Bridget is a researcher at the University of Melbourne specialising in fungal genetics. She works on fungi that cause disease in humans and studies how these species adapt their metabolism to use available nutrients. As part of her PhD research, she spent six months at the Medical Research Council Centre for Medical Mycology (MRC CMM) in the UK, working with one of the largest groups of medical mycologists worldwide. Beyond the lab, Bridget also enjoys sharing the fascinating biology of fungi with others through science communication and public outreach.

Check out Bridget's socials!