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Alyssa La Bella

PhD graduate student co-advised by Felipe (primary advisor is Dr. Flores-Mireles)

PhD graduate student co-advised by Felipe (primary advisor is Dr. Flores-Mireles)
Email
alabella@nd.edu

Alyssa is from Oak Lawn, IL and attended the University of Notre Dame for her undergraduate degree. There, she received her B.S. in Biochemistry and began working in Dr. Flores-Mireles’s lab at the end of her sophomore year. The Flores-Mireles's lab specializes in bacterial UTIs and catheter-associated UTIs (or CAUTIs), but Alyssa wanted to focus on fungal CAUTIs, which have been traditionally neglected. Thus, Alyssa initiated a collaboration between our labs that have been very productive. Her work on this field continued after graduation, with Alyssa joining the Flores-Mireles lab with Ana as her primary PhD advisor and me as her co-advisor. In her free time, Alyssa enjoys running, swimming, watching true crime documentaries and thrillers, and being a salami (and shrimp) connoisseur.

Publications:

  • La Bella AA, Gervais NC, Kohler KN, et al. The Unique Efg1 Fungal Virulence Regulon in the Catheterized Bladder Environment. Preprint. bioRxiv. 2025;2025.11.06.686417. doi:10.1101/2025.11.06.686417.
  • Doorley LA, La Bella AA, et al. (2025) Convergent evolution on RBA1 regulates Candidozyma auris host adaptation. Preprint. bioRxiv. 2025;2025.12.04.692421; doi: 10.64898/2025.12.04.692421.
  • Marrufo AM, Molina JJ, Gager C, Andersen MJ, La Bella AA, et al. The catheterized bladder environment induces dysregulation of macrophage polarization exacerbating bacterial UTI. Preprint. bioRxiv. 2024;2024.07.16.603761. doi: 10.1101/2024.07.16.603761.
  • La Bella AA, Akegbe H, Howell C, Santiago-Tirado FH, and Flores-Mireles AL. (2026) Liquid-Infused Silicone Catheters Reduce Fungal Burden and Inflammation in Candidozyma auris Bladder Infections. mSphere, 0:e00098-26. Epub Ahead of Print. doi: https://doi.org/10.1128/msphere.00098-26.
  • La Bella AA, Santiago-Tirado FH, Flores-Mireles AL. Candida auris is emerging as a prevalent urinary pathogen. PLoS Pathogens. 2025;21(5):e1013138. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1013138.
  • La Bella AA, Andersen MJ, Gervais NC, et al. The catheterized bladder environment promotes Efg1- and Als1-dependent Candida albicans infection. Science Advances. 2023;9(9):eade7689. doi:10.1126/sciadv.ade7689.
  • Gervais NC, La Bella AA, Wensing LF, et al. Development and applications of a CRISPR activation system for facile genetic overexpression in Candida albicans. G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics. 2023;13(2):jkac301. doi:10.1093/g3journal/jkac301.