Teresa O'Meara

I attended the University of Chicago and while I was there I worked in Martin Feder's lab studying transposable elements in the promoters of Drosophila heat shock genes. When I came to Duke in 2007, I joined Andrew Alspaugh's lab. I currently work on signal transduction pathways that are important in regulating virulence factors of Cryptococcus neoformans, a human fungal pathogen. I am especially interested in understanding the mechanism by which Cryptococcus is able to respond to host signals and induce a polysaccharide capsule.

I have been very happy with my decision to come to Duke and with the University Program in Genetics and Genomics. The program is very supportive, my lab is fantastic, the science is awesome and living in Durham is pretty sweet too. Outside of lab, I enjoy hanging out with all the great people I've met here, eating out (there is a great food scene here), gardening, cooking, chasing my kittens, and having various adventures.

(In the picture, I have the flowers on my head.)

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