Dr. Orbach received his PhD at Stanford University studying molecular genetics of Neurospora crassa and did postdoctoral research at the Dupont Experimental Station on avirulence and pathogenicity of the rice blast pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae. At the University of Arizona his laboratory has studied virulence factors in a number of fungal pathogens, focusing on M. oryzae, Aspergillus flavus and Coccidioides species. While evaluating conserved fungal virulence factors, his laboratory discovered that deletion of the cps1 gene in C. posadasii produced an avirulent strain that provided protection against subsequent infection by wild type strains. This has led to development of the delta-cps1 strain as a live attenuated vaccine against Coccidioidomycosis.
