Professional Bio
Dr. Wellington received her undergraduate degree in Biology at Brown University. She then went to Duke University, where she earned a Masters of Science in Cell Biology and her MD. She then came to Rochester where she completed a residency in Pediatrics. After her residency, Dr. Wellington worked for a year in Gallup, NM, as an attending pediatrician with the Indian Health Service and the Navajo Nation. She then returned to Rochester, where she combined her fellowship training in Pediatric Infectious Diseases with graduate studies, leading to her earning a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology. Her current research efforts grew out of her graduate work, and she is now serving as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Pediatrics.
Research Bio
Dr. Wellington's research interests are:
1) Host defense against infection with Candida
2) Fungal infections in children
3) Infections in the immunocompromised host.
Candida is the most common cause of invasive fungal infection. Most individuals are colonized with Candida, but healthy individuals rarely develop disease from the organism. Candida does cause serious disease in patients who are immunocompromised because of malignancies, AIDS, congenital immunodeficiency disorders, or who are receiving medications that inhibit the immune response. Candida disease is extremely difficult to treat and has a high rate of mortality. Therefore, new modalities, such as the use of anti-Candida antibodies are being investigated. However, very little is known about how antibodies function to protect individuals from infection.
The focus of Dr. Wellington's laboratory is to investigate how the immune response to Candida is affected by the presence of anti-Candida antibodies. The major area of investigation is the interaction of phagocytes with Candida. These investigations include characterization of the mechanisms through which antibody enhances the phagocyte response to the organism. In addition to antibody, receptors on the phagocyte surface that recognize pathogen associated molecular patterns may play an important role in activating the anti-Candida response. The ability of phagocytes to respond appropriately to Candida is important for activation of innate and adaptive immune responses to Candida and may lead to protection from the development of Candida disease. We expect these studies to lead to a better understanding of host-fungal interactions, which will allow us to improve the care of patients at risk for Candida disease.
2013 Feb
Butts A, Didone L, Koselny K, Baxter BK, Chabrier-Rosello Y, Wellington M, Krysan DJ. "A repurposing approach identifies off-patent drugs with fungicidal cryptococcal activity, a common structural chemotype, and pharmacological properties relevant to the treatment of cryptococcosis." Eukaryotic cell. 2013 Feb 0; 12(2):278-87. Epub 2012 Dec 14. |
2012 Jul
Kajfasz JK, Mendoza JE, Gaca AO, Miller JH, Koselny KA, Giambiagi-Demarval M, Wellington M, Abranches J, Lemos JA. "The Spx regulator modulates stress responses and virulence in Enterococcus faecalis." Infection and immunity. 2012 Jul 0; 80(7):2265-75. Epub 2012 Apr 16. |
2012
Wellington M, Koselny K, Krysan DJ. "Candida albicans morphogenesis is not required for macrophage interleukin 1? production." mBio. 2012 4(1):e00433-12. Epub 2012 Dec 26. |
2010
Mitra S, Dolan K, Foster TH, Wellington M. "Imaging morphogenesis of Candida albicans during infection in a live animal." Journal of biomedical optics. 2010 15(1):010504. |
2009 Oct
Van Alst NE, Wellington M, Clark VL, Haidaris CG, Iglewski BH. "Nitrite reductase NirS is required for type III secretion system expression and virulence in the human monocyte cell line THP-1 by Pseudomonas aeruginosa." Infection and immunity. 2009 Oct 0; 77(10):4446-54. Epub 2009 Aug 03. |
