Film Synopsis

About the Speaker

Dr. Lee Fortunato is a member of the Initiative for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies, Institute for Interdisciplinary Data Sciences, Office of Research and Economic Development, at the University of Idaho.

In addition to being a professor of biological sciences at the University of Idaho, Dr. Fortunato is also participating faculty at the Institute for Modeling Collaboration and Innovation, Office of Research and Economic Development, University of Idaho.

I am originally from the U.K. and was raised in the town of Burton-on-Trent, famous for its long history of brewing. Both my father and grandfather worked in the towns brewing industry and so it somehow seems appropriate that one of my major research model organisms is the Brewer's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. After leaving school I pursued a degree in Microbiology/Virology at The University of Warwick (U.K.), where I was introduced to the fascinating aspects of how viruses cause disease and fell in love with laboratory science. After working in the food safety industry, I began a PhD studying the biology of bacterial viruses, specifically how they use molecular machines called recombinases to insert their DNA into their host bacteria (The University of Aberdeen, U.K.). During my PhD I was mentored by Prof. Maggie Smith (retired, The University of York, U.K.) who was extremely supportive and allowed me the freedom to pursue my scientific ideas freely within the laboratory; a philosophy that I maintain in my laboratory today. After 4 years getting through my PhD, I finally published my thesis and a couple of first author papers. I was then offered a postdoctoral position in the US at The University of Texas at Austin (ever heard of SXSW or Franklin BBQ?) under the mentorship of Prof. Makkuni Jayaram (retired). In the Jayaram laboratory I continued working on recombinases, but I also began to study the physiology of a parasitic DNA element called the 2-micron plasmid, which lives in the nucleus of S. cerevisiae. This short position was extremely productive and I produced a number of papers from 2-years of blood, sweat, and tears. It was during this time that I began to understand that lurking within my pint of beer or my loaf of bread there are numerous viruses and molecular parasites that infect S. cerevisiae. Importantly, some of these parasites have a resemblance to human viruses like HIV and other viruses that cause disease. I then joined the laboratory of Prof. Sara Sawyer (currently at The University of Colorado, Boulder) who's laboratory has the primary focus of understanding how viruses "do battle" with their hosts over evolutionary time. Sara's interest in the viruses of Saccharomyces yeasts allowed me the time and resources to lay the foundations of many of the projects that I am working on today. Specifically, I began to knit ideas together on how conserved host cellular processes can be exploited by viruses of humans and yeasts. After helping the Sawyer laboratory move from Texas to Colorado, I was offered a job at The University of Idaho, Moscow, as an Assistant Professor in The Department of Biological Sciences. I was overjoyed and very fortunate to have the opportunity to start my own research program. As a tenured associate professor (as of 2022), I am focusing the labs research efforts on the discovery and characterization of antifungal killer toxins produced by yeasts. If you would like to learn more, you can visit my labs website - link below.

Plants produce a diverse array of metabolites, the majority of which do not appear to be directly involved in growth and development. These metabolites are commonly referred to as secondary metabolites, specialized metabolites or natural products. In contrast to primary metabolites, which are found in all organisms and are usually involved in essential processes, plant natural products oftentimes play more elusive roles in the communication of plants with their environment (e.g., protection against herbivores and infection and attraction of pollinators and/or seed dispersers) and are differentially distributed. Plant natural products are better known for their utility as dyes (e.g., indigo), fibers (e.g., cellulose), flavors (e.g., eugenol in cloves), fragrances (e.g., essential oils), and pharmaceuticals (e.g., morphine or taxol). Research in my laboratory is aimed at characterizing the interface between primary and secondary metabolic pathways, with particular emphasis on the biosynthesis of terpenoids, the most diverse class of plant natural products. We are taking advantage of recent and continuing advances in next-generation sequencing, metabolomics and computational biology to develop integrative mathematical models describing the regulation of terpenoid and related metabolic pathways, thus enabling gene discovery and knowledge-based approaches for pathway improvements by breeding or metabolic engineering.