Indian American molecular microbiologist Dr. Vikas Yadav has joined the University of Minnesota Twin Cities as an assistant professor, launching a new research facility within the Medical School’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology.
Announced by Yadav on social media platform X and LinkedIn, the “Yadav Lab” will investigate the molecular mechanisms that enable pathogenic environmental fungi to adapt to human body temperature and trigger severe health conditions.
The lab’s work centers on understanding heat not merely as an environmental obstacle for fungi, but as a dynamic driver of their biological evolution and pathogenicity.
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“We think that heat is not just a stress that fungi adapt to, but that high temperatures reshape cell division, genome stability, and pathogenicity in fungal pathogens,” he stated on the Yadav Lab website. “Decoding the underlying molecular and biochemical basis of heat response pathways will reveal the hidden biology of pathogenic fungi, identifying novel drug targets.”
Yadav’s research aims to pinpoint the specific cellular and molecular players involved in fungal growth at high temperatures, offering new insights into how these pathogens survive inside a host and open pathways for future therapeutics.
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Yadav built his foundational scientific career in India before moving to the United States for advanced research roles. He earned his doctorate in molecular biology from the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) in Bengaluru, India.
Following his doctoral studies in India, Yadav expanded his expertise in the United States, working as a postdoctoral associate and senior research associate in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at the Duke University School of Medicine.
His appointment at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities marks his transition to leading an independent academic research lab focused on the cellular biology of pathogenic fungi.