Yeast is best known for helping bread rise and gives fermented foods their distinctive flavour. But among the more than 1,000 known yeast species are strains that can cause serious infections in people, with limited treatment options available.
Dr. Linda Horianopoulos, a professor in OAC’s Department of Food Science, studies the genetics of these fungi to understand what makes some yeasts useful for food production and others capable of causing infection.
“There are more than a thousand yeast species, each with their own metabolic capabilities that can be used in food production and biotechnology. My research aims to understand how yeasts respond to different stressful environments,” says Horianopoulos
Her lab, which focuses on harnessing the natural diversity of yeasts, combines genetics, evolutionary biology, and comparative genomics to understand how different yeasts develop particular traits including stress resistance.
“This project is specifically looking at how pathogenic yeasts respond to stress and interact with their environment,” says Horianopoulos. “By studying the genes that help harmful yeasts survive and cause infection, we aim to better understand the biological mechanisms behind fungal disease.”
Horianopoulos recently received a 2026 Banting Discovery Award, which supports early-career scientists as they establish independent research programs and pursue new ideas in health and biomedical science.
By investigating the genes that contribute to fungal survival, Horianopoulos hopes to identify targets for future treatments.
“Understanding how these pathogens respond to the body's natural defences can also provide valuable insights into how infections develop and how they might be better controlled,” says Horianopoulos.
Improving yeast in food production
Her work also has applications beyond human health. Yeasts are essential to food production, from traditional fermentation to emerging technologies such as precision fermentation. Understanding their genetic diversity can help researchers identify and develop strains with useful characteristics for food processing and production.
“Yeasts can be used to produce proteins or flavour molecules in food production but if we want to make these in high yields it can put a lot of stress on the yeast cells leading to bottlenecks in the production,” says Horianopoulos.
Her work on stress responses also aims to overcome these issues in a food context allowing a data-driven rational design of bioproduction to pick the best yeast species and growth conditions based on the genomic information of each yeast.
Horianopoulos brings together fundamental research into yeast genetics and evolution with potential applications in human health and food science. Her lab also involves students in this work, providing opportunities to develop skills in microbiology, molecular biology, genetics and biotechnology.
Whether studying harmful fungi or identifying yeasts that can improve food production, Horianopoulos's research explores how understanding the diversity of these microscopic organisms can lead to practical benefits for people.
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