Bailey Blair
Education
- B.S. Biology and Mathematics, Franklin Pierce University, 2016
Biosketch
During my time as an undergraduate I worked in the lab of Dr. Amy Piispanen investigating the role of STE50 in the fungal pathogen Candida. albicans. We were interested in determining the role of STE50 in regulating hyphal growth and in regulating the response to environmental stresses. I also had the opportunity to work in Dr. Carmen Marsit’s lab as part of the NH-INBRE SURF program. Here I investigated the incidence of mitochondrial DNA methylation in placental tissue as a consequence of maternal smoking during pregnancy. Currently I am interested in understanding the interplay between the immune system and pathogens and uncovering the mechanisms microbes have developed to help them become successful pathogens.
Research Interests
Dissertation Projects: In Dr. Robert Wheeler’s lab, my research is focusing on screening different Candida albicans mutants to discover factors that may influence phagocyte recruitment to the site of infection, or factors that help determine the ability of C. albicans to disseminate.
Rogers Lab Rotation: In the Rogers lab I worked on a project looking at the tissue specific effects of certain genes on the onset of age related neurodegenerative diseases, such as Huntington’s and Parkinson’s, using the model organism C. elegans.
Wheeler Lab Rotation: During my rotation I investigated the role of clotting on the dissemination of C. albicans and the survival of infected larval zebrafish.
Neely Lab Rotation: In the Neely lab I worked on looking at differences in Streptococcus pyogenes mutant’s virulence in the larval zebrafish model as well as recruitment of neutrophils to the infection.
Selected Publications
- Armstrong, D. A., Green, B. B., Blair, B. A., Guerin, D. J., Litzky, J. F., Chavan, N. R., … Marsit, C. J. (2016). Maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with mitochondrial DNA methylation. Environmental Epigenetics, 2(3), dvw020. http://doi.org/10.1093/eep/dvw020
