Purdue University-Main Campus · BiologyThe Fungal Frontier Lab
Shankar Thangamani · West Lafayette, Indiana
Research Focus
Dr. Shankar Thangamani's lab at Purdue University studies Candida auris, a drug-resistant fungus that colonizes the skin and can lead to severe infections in hospitalized patients. The lab focuses on understanding how the skin microbiota influences the growth of this fungus, aiming to uncover mechanisms that could inform new treatment strategies. By examining both the properties of the bacteria on the skin and the host's immune response, the research seeks to provide insights to combat these increasingly common infections.
Candida aurisskin microbiotafungal infectionsdrug resistancemicrobial interactions
Research Aims
3AIM 01Define how skin microbiota inhibit Candida auris growth.
AIM 02Investigate host factors regulating Candida auris skin colonization.
AIM 03Identify potential therapeutic strategies targeting Candida auris infections.
Skills the Lab Values
PCRcell culturemolecular cloningWestern blotCRISPR/Cas technologymass spectrum analysisdata analysisin vitro assaysgenome analysisanimal models
Output against the department
Publications59bottom 15% of dept.879th of 1,033
this lab
most publishedleast published
Citations2.2kbottom 16% of dept.872nd of 1,033
this lab
most citedleast cited
Career totals from OpenAlex, compared against labs that share a department. A department spans everything from one paper to tens of thousands, so bar heights are on a log scale — otherwise the largest lab would flatten every other bar to a line.