{"688830":{"#nid":"688830","#data":{"type":"event","title":"The School of Biological Sciences Spring 2026 Seminar Series presents Dana Opulente ","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EYeasts in the subphylum Saccharomycotina provide a powerful system for studying how ecological conditions and evolutionary history shape microbial diversity. My research combines environmental sampling, large-scale genomic resources, and trait data from hundreds of yeast species to understand how these microorganisms interact with their environments and how their metabolic abilities evolve. In this seminar, I will highlight two major themes from my work: uncovering where yeasts, including opportunistic pathogens, exist in natural habitats, and investigating why some yeast species evolve broad metabolic capabilities while others specialize on only a few resources. Together, these approaches reveal how ecological context, metabolic networks, and evolutionary processes contribute to the diversity of yeasts found across environments ranging from soils to animal hosts.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFrom Vineyards to Virulence: The Ecology and Evolution of Saccharomycotina Yeasts\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"From Vineyards to Virulence: The Ecology and Evolution of Saccharomycotina Yeasts"}],"uid":"36506","created_gmt":"2026-03-10 17:20:42","changed_gmt":"2026-03-10 18:01:47","author":"rbailey74","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2026-03-19T11:00:00-04:00","event_time_end":"2026-03-19T12:00:00-04:00","event_time_end_last":"2026-03-19T12:00:00-04:00","gmt_time_start":"2026-03-19 15:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2026-03-19 16:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2026-03-19 16:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"EBB 1005","extras":["free_food"],"hg_media":{"679563":{"id":"679563","type":"image","title":"Dana.jpeg","body":null,"created":"1773163382","gmt_created":"2026-03-10 17:23:02","changed":"1773163382","gmt_changed":"2026-03-10 17:23:02","alt":"Photo of Dana Opulente","file":{"fid":"263739","name":"Dana.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/03\/10\/Dana.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/03\/10\/Dana.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2586534,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/03\/10\/Dana.jpeg?itok=ZEtD-y8c"}}},"media_ids":["679563"],"groups":[{"id":"1275","name":"School of Biological Sciences"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"172458","name":"biological sciences"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1795","name":"Seminar\/Lecture\/Colloquium"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78761","name":"Faculty\/Staff"},{"id":"177814","name":"Postdoc"},{"id":"78771","name":"Public"},{"id":"174045","name":"Graduate students"},{"id":"78751","name":"Undergraduate students"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:rbailey74@gatech.edu\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003Erbailey74@gatech.edu\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}