Shakti Singh, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Dr. Singh is an Assistant Professor-in-Residence at The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and an Investigator at the Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. His research is focused on Candida-host interaction, fungal virulence mechanisms, immunology, and vaccine/immunotherapeutic development for drug-resistant fungal infections.

Dr. Singh obtained his undergraduate (B.Sc.) in Biology and graduate degree (M.Sc.) in Microbiology from Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut, India. Dr. Singh obtained his PhD in Experimental Surgery /Immunology in 2015 from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. Dr. Singh did his first postdoctoral research on HIV immunology and vaccine development at the National Cancer Institute at Frederick (NIH). Dr. Singh started his laboratory at The Lundquist Institute in 2022 after completing his second post-doctoral research on fungal pathogenesis and vaccine /immunotherapeutic development. Dr. Singh received grants from the American Heart Association, KL2 CTSI UCLA, and NIH for the ongoing research in his laboratory.

Areas of Expertise
  • Fungal immunity
  • Host-pathogen interaction
  • Pre-clinical vaccine and immunotherapeutic development
Education
  • B.Sc. Biology, Chaudhary Charan Singh University, India
  • M.Sc. Microbiology, Chaudhary Charan Singh University, India
  • Ph.D. Experimental Surgery (Immunology), University of Alberta, Canada
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, National Cancer Institute, NIH
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, The Lundquist Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
Publications
  1. Santana DJ, Anku JAE, Zhao G, Zarnowski R, Johnson CJ, Hautau H, Visser ND, Ibrahim AS, Andes D, Nett JE, Singh S*, O’Meara TR. A Candida auris-specific adhesin, Scf1, governs surface association, colonization, and virulence. Science. 2023 Sep 29;381(6665):1461-1467. doi: 10.1126/science.adf8972. Epub 2023 Sep 28. PMID: 37769084.
  2. Ost K, O’ Meara TR, Stephens WZ, Chiaro T, Zhou H, Penman J, Bell R, Catanzaro JR, Song D, Singh S, Call DH, Hwang-Wong E, Hanson KE, Valentine JF, Christensen KA, O’Connell RM, Cormack B, Ibrahim AI, Palm NW, Noble SM & Round JL. Adaptive immunity promotes a mutually beneficial interaction between commensal eukaryotes. Nature. 2021 July 14, 596, pages114–118. PMID: 34262174.
  3. Soliman SSM*, Baldin C*, Gu Y*, Singh S*, Gebremariam T, Swidergall M, Alqarihi A, Youssef EG, Alkhazraji S, Pikoulas A, Perske C, Venkataramani V, Rich A, Bruno VM, Hotopp JD, Mantis NJ, Edwards JE Jr, Filler SG, Chamilos G, Vitetta ES, Ibrahim AS. Mucoricin is a Ricin-Like Toxin that is Critical for the Pathogenesis of Mucormycosis. Nature Microbiology. 2021 Jan 18. PMID: 33462434. (*Equal contribution)
  4. Iyer KA, Camara K, Daniel-Ivadd M, Trilles R, Pimentel-Elardod SM, Fossen JL, Marchillo K, Liu Z, Singh S, Muñoz JF, Kim SH, Porco JA Jr, Cuomo CA, Williams NS, Ibrahim AS, Edwards JE Jr, Andes DR, Nodwell JR, Brown LE, Whitesell L, Robbins N, Cowen LE. Novel 3,3-diarylated oxindole efflux inhibitor provides a promising approach to combat azole resistance in the emerging fungal pathogen Candida auris. Nature Communications. 2020 Dec 22; 11, 6429. PMID: 33353950.
  5. Singh S, Uppuluri P, Mamouei Z, Alqarihi A, Elhassan H, French S, Lockhart SR, Chiller T, Edwards Jr JE, Ibrahim AS. The NDV-3A vaccine protects mice from multidrug-resistant Candida auris infection. PLoS Pathogens. 2019 Aug 5; 15(8): e1007460. PMID: 31381597.
  6. Alqarihi A*, Singh S*, Edwards Jr JE, Ibrahim AS, Uppuluri P. NDV-3A vaccination protects mice from Candida albicans biofilm infection. Nature Scientific Report. 2019 Apr 17;9(1):6194. PMID: 30996274. (*Equal contribution).

A list of publications can be found : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/shakti.singh.1/bibliography/public/

Achievements

2022 American Heart Association Award

2022 KL2 UCLA CTSI Career Development Award

2024 NIH (NIAID) K01 Grant