Elijah Mugabe

Degree: B.S., Chemistry
Hometown: Greenbelt, MD
Post-grad plans: Ph.D., Pharmacology, Cornell University

Amongst the beakers, test tubes, and chemicals in a laboratory prep room of the Meyerhoff Chemistry Building Elijah Mugabe found friends, and a calling. A Meyerhoff Scholar, Mugabe worked as a lab assistant his sophomore year and enjoyed the behind-the-scenes view of research that it offered. The next year, he joined the lab of Songon An, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, embarking on research into how metabolic enzymes organize themselves in cells, and how disease affects that organization. The experience opened his eyes to the range of unanswered questions scientists are exploring. 

Mugabe’s academic achievements have been recognized with the Faculty Award for Excellence in Chemistry from the department of chemistry and biochemistry, among other honors. Away from the lab, Mugabe formed connections with the broader UMBC community. He volunteered with Retriever Essentials, an organization committed to tackling food insecurity. “It was a gratifying and enjoyable experience seeing the group’s impact and having a better understanding of our community,” he says.

Has there been a mentor or fellow student who influenced your time at UMBC?

“Karis Barnett graduated from here a few years ago, and she was a chemistry major like me and my personal peer advisor. She helped me a lot when it came to picking classes, helping me with assignments, and just being a good person to talk to when I wanted an ear from someone. She made my time at UMBC smoother than it would’ve been without her, and I am still in contact with her to this day. ”

What has been the best part of your UMBC experience?

“The best part of my UMBC experience would have to be being a part of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, specifically in cohort M31. Knowing people who are working towards similar goals pushed me to be better academically, and as a person.”

Shaniah Reece

Degree: B.S., Information Systems
Hometown: Beltsville, MD and Georgetown, Guyana
Post-grad plans: Ph.D. in Computer Science, Emory University

When Shaniah Reece came to UMBC as a first-generation college student from Guyana, she already had a passion for technology, but she was worried about finding the right path and uncertain how to navigate the college experience. Tapping into a support network in the UMBC community, she skillfully navigated her doubts while excelling in academics, research, and community leadership.

A CWIT scholar, Reece has served in numerous leadership roles on the CWIT student council. She has also served as a lead resident assistant in on-campus housing and volunteered with organizations such as Retriever Essentials, which tackles food insecurity in the UMBC community, and Building Steps, which partners with Baltimore schools to equip promising students with the tools to pursue STEM careers. 

As Reece discovered a passion and aptitude for research, the McNair Scholars program and numerous mentors helped her navigate a successful path to graduate school. She enjoyed the opportunity to work with James Foulds, assistant professor of information systems, on improving the fairness of artificial intelligence systems and recently described to TV viewers how biases from the human world find their way into AI, with harmful effects.

Having found a career path that fits her values, Reece is more than prepared for the journey ahead.

Has there been a mentor or fellow student who influenced your time at UMBC?

“Dr. Maria Sanchez has been a mentor who has had a significant impact on my growth. Despite the numerous times I’ve experienced self-doubt, she consistently provided me with the support and encouragement I needed to realize my potential. As someone who shares a similar background, Dr. Sanchez has been a source of inspiration and motivation for me to overcome any challenges that come my way.”

What has been the best part of your UMBC experience?

“Without a doubt, the most rewarding aspect of my time at UMBC has been the sense of community I have experienced here. Since my freshman year I have been consistently surrounded by a diverse and supportive group of individuals who were committed to helping me achieve my goals. UMBC has been more than just an institution for higher learning to me. It has been a place where I have been able to thrive and show the world a version of me that I am proud of.”

Written by Jeffrey Gardner, associate professor of biological sciences, UMBC

One of the scariest things you can be told when at a doctor’s office is “You have an antimicrobial-resistant infection.” That means the bacteria or fungus making you sick can’t be easily killed with common antibiotics or antifungals, making treatment more challenging. You might have to take a combination of drugs for weeks to overcome the infection, which could result in more severe side effects.

Unfortunately, this diagnosis is becoming more common around the world.

The yeast Candida auris has recently emerged as a potentially dangerous fungal infection for hospital patients and nursing home residents. First discovered in the late 2000s, Candida auris has very quickly become a major health challenge due to its ease of spread and ability to resist common antifungal drugs.

How did this fungus become so strong, and what can researchers and physicians do to combat it?

I am a microbiologist researching new ways to kill fungi. Candida auris and other fungi use three common cellular tricks to overcome treatments. Luckily, exciting new research hints at ways we can still fight this fungus.

Targeting the sensitive parts of fungal cells

Fungal cells contain a structure called a cell wall that helps maintain their shape and protects them from the environment. Fungal cell walls are constructed in part from several different types of polysaccharides, which are long strings of sugar molecules linked together.

Two polysaccharides found in almost all fungal cell walls are chitin and beta-glucan. The fungal cell wall is an attractive target for drugs because human cells do not have a cell wall, so drugs that block chitin and beta-glucan production will have fewer side effects.

Some of the most common drugs used to treat fungal infections are called echinocandins. These drugs stop fungal cells from making beta-glucan, which significantly weakens their cell wall. This means the fungal cell can’t maintain its shape well. While the fungus is struggling to grow or is breaking apart, your immune system has a much better chance of fighting off the infection.

How fungi become drug resistant

Unfortunately, some strains of Candida auris are resistant to echinocandin treatment. But how does the fungus actually do it? For decades, scientists have been studying how fungi overcome drugs designed to weaken or kill them. In the case of echinocandins, Candida auris commonly uses three tricks to beat these treatments: hide, build and change.

The first trick is to hide in a complex mixture of sugars, proteins, DNA and cells called a biofilm. Made with irregular 3D structures, biofilms have lots of places for cells to hide. Drugs aren’t good at penetrating biofilms, so they can’t access and kill cells deep inside. Biofilms are especially problematic when they grow on medical equipment like ventilators or catheters. Once free of a biofilm, cells that have gained the ability to resist the drugs a patient was taking become more dangerous.

The second trick fungi use to evade treatment is to build cell walls differently. Fungal cells treated with echinocandins can’t make beta-glucan. So instead, they start to make more chitin, another important polysaccharide in the fungal cell wall. Echinocandins are unable to stop chitin production, so the fungus is still able to build a strong cell wall and avoid being killed. While there are some drugs that can stop chitin production, none are currently approved for use in people.

The third trick fungi rely on is to change the shape of the beta-glucan production enzyme so echinocandins cannot block it. These mutations allow beta-glucan production to continue even in the presence of the drug. It is not surprising that Candida uses this trick to resist antifungal drugs since it is very effective at keeping the cells alive.

New tactics to fight fungi

What can be done to treat echinocandin-resistant fungal infections? Thankfully, scientists and physicians are researching new ways to kill Candida auris and similar fungi.

The first approach is to find new drugs. For example, there are two drugs in development, rezafungin and ibrexafungerp, that appear to be able to stop beta-glucan production even in fungi resistant to echinocandins.

A complementary approach my research group is exploring is whether a class of enzymes called glycoside hydrolases might also be able to combat drug-resistant fungi. Some of these enzymes actively destroy the fungal cell wall, breaking apart both beta-glucan and chitin at the same time, which could potentially help prevent fungi from surviving on medical equipment or on hospital surfaces.

My lab’s work on discovering enzymes that strongly degrade fungal cell walls is part of a new strategy to combat antifungal resistance that uses a combination of approaches to kill fungi. But the end goal of this research is the same: having a physician tell you, “You’ve got a fungal infection, but we have a good treatment for it now.”

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article and see more than 250 UMBC articles available in The Conversation.

As a semester nears its completion, you may begin the preparation process to enter the workforce. It’s important when entering the workforce to have all your documents ready for job applications and your social skills polished for job interviews. 

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