Dr Duncan Wilson

About me:

Duncan Wilson is a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow. He discovered and characterised the first zinc scavenging mechanism of Candida albicans - the secreted “zincophore” system – which is critical for pathogenicity. His current research focuses on understanding how pathogenic fungi manage homeostasis of the essential micronutrient zinc, during infection.

Our immune systems effectively prevent the vast majority of microbes from causing disease. One of the fundamental mechanisms underpinning this defence is called "nutritional immunity".

This is a system in which the human body withholds access to certain essential trace minerals that microbes require for growth. Pathogenic microbes therefore must have evolved strategies to circumvent nutritional immunity in order to grow within their host and cause disease.

Zinc is absolutely essential for the growth of all microbes and my group is using molecular approaches in the model fungal pathogen Candida albicans to understand how fungi adapt to nutritional immunity during infections. We have shown that C. albicans destroys host cells via a novel toxin called candidalysin. The fungus scavenges zinc from its environment via two distinct mechanisms: a transporter and a secreted “zincophore”. It also changes its morphology in response to zinc restriction, forming enlarged “Goliath” cells.

We are now focusing on three main areas: (i) How fungal signalling pathways orchestrate intracellular nutrient trafficking; (ii) the mechanistic basis of competition for zinc at the host-pathogen interface; (iii) how Candida albicans Goliath cells are involved in colonisation of mammalian mucosae.

This is important because fungal pathogens are a huge threat to human health, responsible for more deaths per year than malaria, and understanding how pathogens feed during infection may pave the way to novel therapeutics.

Doctor of Philosophy. University of Manchester (2003-2006). The role of phosphodiesterases in Candida albicans physiology

Bachelor of Science with Honours in Microbiology. University of Glasgow (1999-2003)

Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow. University of Exeter (2019-present)

Wellcome Sir Henry Dale Fellow. University of Aberdeen (2014-2019)

Postdoctoral researcher. Hans Knoell Institute, Jena, Germany (2007-2014)