Dr. Joseph Heitman Seminar Title: “Epimutations evoke transient antimicrobial resistance” Bio: Joseph Heitman, MD, PhD is James B. Duke Professor and Chair, Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University. He serves as co-director with Leah Cowen for the CIFAR program Fungal Kingdom: Threats & Opportunities. His research studies model and pathogenic fungi addressing fundamental questions of scientific and medical importance. Pioneering studies with Baker’s yeast revealed how immunosuppressive natural products interdict signaling cascades via FKBP12-drug complexes (in collaboration with Mike Hall and Rao Movva), and discovered TOR as a globally conserved nutrient sensor targeted by the immunosuppressive/antiproliferative drug rapamycin. His research discovered unisexual reproduction of pathogenic microbes, with implications for pathogen emergence, how sex generates diversity, and how sex evolved. Dr. Heitman’s lab has further developed genetic/genomic approaches elucidating molecular principles of fungal virulence, identifying therapeutic targets, and illustrating convergent evolution of fungal mating-type loci with mammalian, insect, and plant sex chromosomes. His studies have defined the calcium activated protein phosphatase calcineurin as a globally conserved fungal virulence factor and are harnessing structural biology to develop fungal specific inhibitors as novel therapeutic leads. They have elucidated functions of RNAi in microbial pathogen genome integrity, RNAi loss in hypervirulent outbreak lineages, and novel RNAi roles evoking drug resistance via epimutations silencing genes. His research program has championed fungal genomics, advanced the field, and mentored numerous students and fellows to impactful independent careers in medicine and science.