Fungal Biology Faculty

Learn more about this group by contacting Dr. Chang Hyun Khang (ckhang@plantbio.uga.edu) or visiting the Fungal Biology website.

Fungi range from microscopic, single-celled yeasts to vast underground mycelial colonies covering hundreds of acres. They are heterotrophs that play major roles in recycling environmental carbon, cause diseases of plants and animals, and make many industrial products. Because they are more closely related to animals than to plants and because their biology and genetics are easily manipulated, fungi are great models organisms.

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Bar-Peled, Maor

Maor Bar-Peled Associate Professor Plant Biology Molecular cell biology of the wall, Biofuel and BioEnergy, Golgi as model for System biology, Plant Immunity. Website

Bensasson, Douda 

Douda Bensasson Associate Professor Bioinformatics; Plant Biology Genome bioinformatics, ecological and evolutionary genomics of yeast. Website

Billmyre, Blake

Blake Billmyre Assistant Professor, Pharmaceutical & Biomedical Sciences Department/Infectious Diseases Department High throughput genetics to better understand evolution of fungal pathogens and drive antifungal drug discovery. Website

Garfinkel, David

David Garfinkel Professor Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Retrovirus-like transposons in budding yeast, control of transposition, restriction factors. Website

Khang, Chang Hyun

Chang Hyun Khang Associate Professor Plant Biology Mechanisms of disease and immunity in the rice blast system; Fungal effector proteins; Nutrient uptake in fungi. Website

Lewis, Zachary

Zachary Lewis Associate Professor Microbiology Chromatin structure and function; Epigenetics; Eukaryotic genome stability; Histone H1. Website

Lin, Xiaorong

Xiaorong Lin Professor Microbiology; Plant Biology Human fungal pathogens, sexual reproduction and development in fungal pathogenesis Website

Mitchell, Aaron P.

Aaron P. Mitchell Professor Microbiology We use genetic and genomic approaches to understand mechanisms of fungal pathogenesis and drug resistance. Website

Momany, Michelle

Michelle Momany Professor Plant Biology Cellular and molecular biology of polar growth in fungi. Website

Schmidt, Walter

Walter K. Schmidt Jr. Professor Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Scholar Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Neuroscience Molecular cell biology and biochemistry of proteases associated with isoprenylated protein maturation and amyloidogenic peptide degradation; cancer; Alzheimer’s disease. Website

Starai, Vincent

Vincent Starai Associate Professor Infectious Diseases; Microbiology Bacterial modulation of eukaryotic membrane dynamics for intracellular survival; SNARE-dependent membrane fusion biochemistry. Website