Sinem Beyhan

Biography

Dr. Sinem Beyhan is an Infectious Disease Investigator at the J. Craig Venter Institute.  Dr. Beyhan’s long-term research goal is to understand how microbial pathogens can sense and respond to their environment to trigger expression of genes required for virulence. Her current research focuses on the fungal pathogen Histoplasma capsulatum, a dimorphic fungal pathogen that is the most common cause of fungal respiratory infections in immunocompetent hosts. Notable biology of this organism includes its ability to sense mammalian body temperature and shift from a multicellular environmental form to a parasitic yeast form that grows within mammalian immune cells. Dr. Beyhan’s recent work identified and characterized temperature-responsive regulatory networks that govern cell shape and virulence properties in H. capsulatum. She continues to expand her research program at JCVI to study developmental regulation and virulence properties of this ubiquitous pathogen.

Research Interest

 Infectious Disease