Gene M. Scalarone

Biography

Dr. Scalarone has been a faculty member at ISU since 1980. His interest in medical mycology research began in 1962 as a microbiology graduate student at the University of Oklahoma. After completion of the MS degree in Microbiology, Dr. Scalarone served in the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps as Chief of Microbiology at Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco for two years. After obtaining his PhD degree in Immunology in 1970 from the University of California-Berkeley he continued there as a Research Bacteriologist (Naval BIOLciences Laboratory, School of Public Health, UC Berkeley) working on various aspects of fungal immunology. The research included work on the development and evaluation of antigenic reagents for the immunodiagnosis of coccidioidomycosis and histoplasmosis as well as research on fungal vaccines and antifungal agents. In addition to the research D. Scalarone became involved with teaching various microbiology courses at the UC Berkeley Extension Division, San Jose State University and Sonoma State University. Here at ISU he has continued research on the development of improved immunoassays for the clinical diagnosis of blastomycosis and other systemic fungal diseases. Research funding has been obtained from a variety of sources including two major NIH grants which allowed for the development and testing of novel yeast phase lysate antigenic reagents. His work in medical mycology also led to a sabbatical at the Research Center for Pathogenic Fungi and Microbial Toxicoses, Chiba University, Japan. Many undergraduates and over 55 graduate students (MS and PhD) have completed degrees in Dr. Scalarone's laboratory at ISU since 1980. His research for over 50 years has resulted in over 275 presentations at regional, national and international scientific meetings as well as over 230 publications in various microbiology, immunology and medical mycology journals.

Research Interest

Fungal Immunology