Gerald R. Fink

About

Gerald R. Fink is the Margaret and Herman Sokol Professor Emeritus, American Cancer Society Professor of Genetics, and a Core Member at the Whitehead Institute. His research investigates how fungal pathogens invade the body, evade the immune system, and establish infections. Using genetics, biochemistry, and genomics, his work addresses questions such as what makes Candida albicans a successful pathogen, how fungal pathogens evolve antibiotic resistance, and how they change their genetic composition rapidly. The Fink lab focuses on molecules that enable fungi to penetrate tissues and grow in hostile environments. His notable contributions include studies on yeast genetics, molecular biology, and the mechanisms of fungal pathogenicity.

Research topics

• Biology
• Genetics
• Cell biology
• Biochemistry
• Chemistry

Selected publications

• Transcriptome-wide Mapping Reveals Widespread Dynamic-Regulated Pseudouridylation of ncRNA and mRNA

  Cell · 2014-09-01 · 1024 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A <i>Candida albicans</i> CRISPR system permits genetic engineering of essential genes and gene families

  Science Advances · 2015-04-03 · 359 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  CRISPR simplifies genetic engineering of the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans .

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Microfluidic high-throughput culturing of single cells for selection based on extracellular metabolite production or consumption

  Nature Biotechnology · 2014-04-06 · 335 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Engineering alcohol tolerance in yeast

  Science · 2014-10-02 · 214 citations

  articleOpen access

  Ethanol toxicity in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae limits titer and productivity in the industrial production of transportation bioethanol. We show that strengthening the opposing potassium and proton electrochemical membrane gradients is a mechanism that enhances general resistance to multiple alcohols. The elevation of extracellular potassium and pH physically bolsters these gradients, increasing tolerance to higher alcohols and ethanol fermentation in commercial and laboratory strains (in…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Excised linear introns regulate growth in yeast

  Nature · 2019-01-16 · 172 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Genetic Control of Nutrition Starvation in Yeast

  NIH · $11.8M · 1984–2018

• NIH Grant R01GM040266

  NIH · $13.0M · 2014

• NIH Grant R37GM035010

  NIH · $3.7M · 1995

Frequent coauthors

• Roberto A. Gaxiola

  Arizona State University

  95 shared

• Paula Grisafi

  69 shared

• Cora A. Styles

  Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

  62 shared

• Jef D. Boeke

  Institute for Systems Biology

  52 shared

• Seth L. Alper

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  50 shared

• David P. Bartel

  Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

  48 shared

• Richard D. Klausner

  36 shared

• Daniel Yuan

  36 shared

Awards & honors

• Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal, Genetics Society of America, 2020
• James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award, 2018
• American Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellow,…
• Gruber International Prize in Genetics, 2010
• American Philosophical Society, 2003

Similar researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Rudolf Jaenischh-295
• Robert A. Weinbergh-291
• Susumu Tonegawah-237