Bio
Originally from New Jersey, Dr. Swain started biochemistry research as an undergraduate at Lehigh University in the laboratory of Dr. Linda Lowe-Krentz where she graduated with a B.S. in Molecular Biology in 2009. The following fall, she entered the Ph.D. program in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry at Brown University where she performed her thesis research on mechanisms of epigenetic switching in the pathogenic yeast Candida tropicalis under the supervision of Dr. Richard Bennett. After spending 2 years working on farms in Israel and Colorado, she started her postdoctoral position in 2017 at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus studying the RNA modification N6-methyladenosine (m6A) and its role in long noncoding RNA-mediated breast cancer metastasis with Dr. Aaron M. Johnson.
During her postdoctoral studies, Dr. Swain pioneered an area of independent research by combining her graduate and postdoctoral work to investigate the role of m6A in Candida albicans cell state switching. She started as an Assistant Professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy in 2024 where she continues to perform research on m6A in Candida biology. In addition to her research, Dr. Swain teaches Chem 100 and Biochemistry courses.
Education
Ph.D., Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island (2015)
B.S., Molecular Biology, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (2009)
Professional Experience
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado (2024-Present)
Research Instructor, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics Department, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (2023-2024)
Visiting Assistant Professor, Biology Department, Colorado College (2023)
Lecturer, Biology Department, University of Colorado Denver (2019-2020)
Postdoctoral Fellow, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics Department, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (2017-2023)
Honors & Awards
NIH K99 Pathway to Independence Award, NIDCR (CU AMC, 2022-2024)
Future Faculty Award, Symposium on RNA: From Biology to Drug Discovery, The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation and Technology (CU AMC, 2023)
RNA Society Poster Award Winner (CU AMC, 2022)
Eclipse Bioinnovations RNA Grant Winner (CU AMC, 2020)
Postdoc Research Day First Place Poster Presentation (CU AMC, 2019)
Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program Breakthrough Fellowship Award (CU AMC, 2018-2022)
Young Investigator Award, FEBS Advanced Lecture Course on Human Fungal Pathogens (Brown University, 2013)
NIH NRSA F31 Predoctoral Award, NIDCR (Brown University, 2012-2014)
Oliver Cromwell Gorton Arnold Biological Predoctoral Fellow (Brown University, 2012)
ASM Student Travel Grant to attend the 11th ASM Conference on Candida and Candidiasis (Brown University, 2012)
Pool Premedical Scholar (Lehigh University, 2005-2009)
Research and Scholarly Interests
I am interested in mechanisms and function of the RNA modification N6-methyladenosine (m6A) in mediating cell state switches. Using Candida albicans as a model to study the function of the RNA methylation enzyme IME4, research has found that m6A plays an important role in mediating a phenotypic switch. Current studies include analysis of environmental conditions that regulate m6A-mediated switching in the yeast, genetic studies to investigate the role of other proteins in the m6A pathway, protein purification to study the methylation complex and substrates in vitro, and developing biochemical methods to analyze m6A levels, location, and changes.
Publications
Porman AM, Roberts JT, Duncan ED, Chrupcala ML, Levine AA, Kennedy MA, Williams MM, Richer JK, Johnson AM. A single N6-methyladenosine site regulates lncRNA HOTAIR function in breast cancer cells. PLOS Biology (2022) 20(11): e3001885. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001885
Cable, J, Heard, E, Hirose, T, Prasanth, KV, Chen, LL, Henninger, JE, Quinodoz, SA, Spector, DL, Diermeier, SD, Porman, AM, Kumar, D, Feinberg, MW, Shen, X, Unfried, JP, Johnson, R, Chen, CK, Wilusz, JE, Lempradl, A, McGeary, SE, Wahba, L, … Liu, X.. Noncoding RNAs: biology and applications-a Keystone Symposia report. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (2021), 1506(1), 118–141. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.14713
Roberts, JT, Porman, AM & Johnson, AM. Identification of m6A residues at single-nucleotide resolution using eCLIP and an accessible custom analysis pipeline. RNA (2020). https://doi.org/10.1261/rna.078543.120
Mancera E, Frazer C, Porman AM, Ruiz S, Johnson AD, Bennett RJ. Genetic Modification of Closely Related Candida Species. Front Microbiol. (2019) Mar 19;10:357. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00357
Balas MM, Porman AM, Hansen KC, Johnson AM. SILAC-MS Profiling of Reconstituted Human Chromatin Platforms for the Study of Transcription and RNA Regulation. J Proteome Res. (2018) Oct 5;17(10):3475-3484. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jproteome.8b00395
Anderson MZ, Porman AM, Wang N, Mancera E, Huang D, Cuomo CA, Bennett RJ. A Multistate Toggle Switch Defines Fungal Cell Fates and is Regulated by Synergistic Genetic Cues. PLoS Genetics. (2016) Oct 6;12(10):e1006353. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1006353
Mancera E, Porman AM, Cuomo CA, Bennett RJ, & Johnson AD. Finding a Missing Gene: EFG1 Regulates Morphogenesis in Candida tropicalis. G3 (Bethesda). (2015) Mar 9;5(5):849-56. https://doi.org/10.1534/g3.115.017566
Seervai RN, Jones SK Jr, Hirakawa MP, Porman AM, & Bennett RJ. Parasexuality and Ploidy Change in Candida tropicalis. Eukaryotic Cell. (2013) Dec;12(12):1629-40. https://doi.org/10.1128/EC.00128-13
Porman AM, Hirakawa MP, Jones, SK Jr, Wang N, & Bennett, RJ. MTL-independent phenotypic switching in Candida tropicalis and a dual role for Wor1 in regulating switching and filamentation. PLoS Genetics. (2013) Mar;9(3): e1003369. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1003369
Porman AM, Alby K, Hirakawa MP, & Bennett RJ. Phenotypic switching regulates sexual mating in the opportunistic pathogen Candida tropicalis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. (2011) Dec 27;108(52):21158-63. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1112076109 (Featured: https://www.livescience.com/17313-yeast-sexual-reproduction.html; https://news.brown.edu/articles/2011/12/candida)
Maas S, Godfried Sie CP, Stoev I, Dupuis DE, Latona J, Porman AM, Evans B, Rekawek P, Kluempers V, Mutter M, Gommans WM, Lopresti D. Genome-wide evaluation and discovery of vertebrate A-to-I RNA editing sites. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. (2011) Sep 2;412(3):407-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2011.07.075