TXST chemist Ryan Peterson received a $2.1 million NIH grant to study how the fungus behind white-nose syndrome acquires copper, a vulnerability that could open avenues for new treatments.
Texas State University chemist Ryan Loren Peterson, Ph.D., has received a $2.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study how the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome in bats acquires copper, a metal it needs to survive.
Peterson, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, will lead the project, “Copper Scavenging Mechanisms in Fungal Pathogens.”
I’m excited to have the opportunity to advance our knowledge of how fungi sense and adapt to fluctuations and extremes in metal levels found in their environment.
His team will focus on Pseudogymnoascus destructans, the invasive fungus responsible for white-nose syndrome. The fungus lives in soil and cave environments and infects bats while they hibernate. The disease has killed millions of hibernating bats across North America and threatened populations of animals that help control insect pests, pollinate plants and disperse seeds.
Copper is a micronutrient, an element essential to cellular life in small amounts. Fungi depend on copper to survive. But an excess of the metal can prove toxic, damaging or even killing their cells. Copper scavenging is how fungi collect copper from their surroundings, bring it into their cells and use it to survive.
Peterson’s team will examine how P. destructans adapts to environments where copper is either scarce or present in potentially toxic concentrations. In controlled laboratory conditions, researchers will test genes that may help the fungus sense, collect and use copper. They will also develop new tools to probe the fungus’s underlying biology and work with collaborators at UT Health San Antonio, the University of Denver and Washington University in St. Louis to characterize the small molecules it produces as copper levels fluctuate.
Undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students will collect and analyze data and share their findings, gaining hands-on experience in biochemical and molecular research, including microbiology, microscopy and bioinformatics. The project will also strengthen TXST’s Integrated Molecular Biophysical Chemistry doctoral program and equip students for careers in Texas’ growing biotechnology industry.
The project builds on Peterson’s earlier NIH-funded research. His lab first used baker’s yeast to explore how fungi respond to copper stress, then shifted to working with P. destructans itself. That work uncovered genes that may help the pathogen detect and obtain copper. The new grant will allow them to test those findings in the native fungus.
The work could also shape future research on fungal infections in people. Fungi and humans share many cell processes, which can make infections difficult to treat without harming human cells. Identifying pathways and proteins unique to fungi could reveal more precise treatment targets.
“Fungal infections affect all of us, and our repertoire for treating them is becoming increasingly limited in a clinical setting,” Peterson said. “Identifying pathways and protein targets unique to fungi, not found in humans, provides opportunities to develop targeted drugs and therapies to treat fungal infections in the future.”
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