Carol Kumamoto

Carol Kumamoto is an American microbiologist who is Professor of Molecular Biology & Microbiology at Tufts University. She investigates the filamentous growth of Candida albicans, a fungal pathogen that causes several diseases. She is also interested in how C. albicans interacts with its host during colonisation and invasive diseases. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society for Microbiology.

Carol A. Kumamoto
Alma materUniversity of California, Los Angeles (BS, PhD)
Scientific career
InstitutionsStanford University
Harvard Medical School
Tufts University

Early life and education

Kumamoto studied biology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), graduating in 1976.[1] She remained there for her doctoral degree before moving to Harvard Medical School for a postdoctoral research position in 1980.[1] She joined Stanford University as a research associate and joined Tufts University in 1986.[2] Her early work involved monitoring the mechanism of action of E.coli.[3] She studied the mutant strains of E.Coli that were defective in exporting the periplasmatic protein maltose binding protein into the periplasm from the cytoplasm. She showed that these mutants were defective in the gene SecB and went on to study the mechanism of action of this protein; showing that it had chaperone activity and was selective in its binding to exported protein precursors.

Research and career

Kumamoto is a Professor of Molecular Biology & Microbiology at Tufts University.[1] Her research considers Candida albicans (C. albicans), a fungal pathogen that can causes several diseases.[4] C. albicans typically colonises the gastrointestinal tract of humans without causing any problems, but when the host organism becomes immunocompromised the pathogen produces invasive lesions that are associated with candidiasis.[5] Candidiasis is complicated to diagnose and can be fatal.[6] Kumamoto demonstrated that low levels of the protein Efg1p permit fast growth of C. albicans, whereas high levels suppress the growth.[7][8][9]

In particular, Kumamoto studies the environmental conditions that cause C. albicans to grow in filamentous, elongated cells, which are able to invade and destroy biological tissue and enter the bloodstream.[10] Early in her career, Kumamoto demonstrated that this filamentous growth occurs when the organism is grown in contact with an agar medium. She showed that the CZF1 gene is a regulator of the filamentation response, and that Mkc1 and Cek1 (MAP kinases) are activated when cells are grown in contact with the agar. She has demonstrated that certain dietary fats, including coconut oil, can suppress the growth of C. albicans in the gut, decreasing the risk of fungal infections.[11] It has been proposed that this finding will decrease the need for antifungal drugs and could be used to decrease the amount of C. albicans in the guts of premature infants.[11] In 2019, Kumamoto reported the first results of a clinical trial that involved supplementing the diets of preterm infants with medium-chain triglycerides to reduce the amount of C. albicans in the gastrointestinal tract.[6]

Kumamoto has also studied candida auris a fungus that was identified in 2009 that appears to withstand anti-fungal drugs.[12] She is interested in the mechanism by which C. albicans interacts with its host during colonisation and invasive degrees.[1] For example, Kumamoto has demonstrated that the interaction of C. albicans with other pathogens can influence its virulence.[4]

Awards and honours

Selected publications
  • Kumamoto, Carol A. (2002). "Candida biofilms". Current Opinion in Microbiology. 5 (6): 608–611. doi:10.1016/S1369-5274(02)00371-5. PMID 12457706.
  • Kumamoto, Carol A. (2006). "Candida albicans Biofilms Produce Antifungal-Tolerant Persister Cells". Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. 50 (11): 3839–3846. doi:10.1128/AAC.00684-06. PMC 1635216. PMID 16923951.
  • Kumamoto, Carol A. (2005). "Contributions of hyphae and hypha‐co‐regulated genes to Candida albicans virulence". Cellular Microbiology. 7 (11): 1546–1554. doi:10.1111/j.1462-5822.2005.00616.x. PMID 16207242. S2CID 22740748.

Kumamoto has written for The Conversation.[15]

References
  1. "Carol Kumamoto". Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. 2018-04-09. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  2. Kumamoto, Carol. "Mechanism of Action of E. coli Protein Export Factors". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. Kumamoto, Carol A.; Oliver, Donald B.; Beckwith, Jon (1984). "Signal sequence mutations disrupt feedback between secretion of an exported protein and its synthesis in E. coli". Nature. 308 (5962): 863–864. Bibcode:1984Natur.308..863K. doi:10.1038/308863a0. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 6371546. S2CID 4315345.
  4. "Mycology Loquacity: Carol Kumamoto Gets Candid About Candida – MicroTalk". Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  5. "Title". Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. 2018-04-16. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  6. "Fighting Fungal Infections with Less Collateral Damage". Tufts Now. 2019-01-09. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  7. "How a common fungus knows when to attack". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  8. Pierces, J.V. Dignard, D. Whiteway, M. Kumamoto, C.A. (2013). Normal adaptation of Candida albicans to the murine gastrointestinal tract requires Efg1p-dependent regulation of metabolic and host defense genes. OCLC 875283153.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. Vinces, Marcelo D. Haas, Christopher Kumamoto, Carol A. (2006). "Expression of the Candida albicans Morphogenesis Regulator Gene CZF1 and Its Regulation by Efg1p and Czf1p". Eukaryotic Cell. American Society for Microbiology. 5 (5): 825–35. doi:10.1128/EC.5.5.825-835.2006. OCLC 677688035. PMC 1459686. PMID 16682460.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. Kumamoto, Carol A.; Romo, Jesus A. "A frenemy fungus provides clues about a new deadly one". The Conversation. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  11. "Study in Mice Suggests Coconut Oil Can Control Overgrowth of a Fungal Pathogen in GI Tract". Tufts Now. 2015-11-17. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  12. Kumamoto, Carol A.; Romo, Jesus A. "A frenemy fungus provides clues about a new deadly one". The Conversation. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  13. "Tufts Researcher Elected 2014 AAAS Fellow for Work in Life-Threatening Fungal Infections". Tufts Now. 2014-11-24. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  14. "109 Fellows Elected into the Academy". ASM.org. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  15. "Carol A Kumamoto". The Conversation. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
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