Carolina is an evolutionary fungal biologist and mycologist who combines fieldwork and molecular tools to investigate fungal taxonomy, population genetics, and genomics across systems ranging from ectomycorrhizal mutualists to human pathogens. She is a Research Fellow at ASU BIOS, where she leads the Human and Ocean Health laboratory.
From deep-sea habitats to the human body, fungi form dynamic networks that tie molecules to ecosystems. Grounded in a One Health framework, Carolina's lab leverages computational, -omic, and molecular approaches, including metabarcoding, genomics, and transcriptomics, to study the mechanisms of fungal interactions across marine and island ecosystems. Her group investigates marine fungi as essential environmental drivers and rich reservoirs for biomedical discovery, targeting novel natural products and therapeutic leads. In parallel, they explore the underground mycorrhizal diversity of native Bermuda cedar and how it is disrupted by invasive species, working toward native fungal inoculum to support the tree's reintroduction.
Carolina received her PhD from Oregon State University, USA, where she studied how climate change has shaped ectomycorrhizal truffles in a Pleistocene refugium, working under the mentorship of Dr. Joey Spatafora and using the Madrean Sky Islands as a natural laboratory to trace how fungi, trees, and climate have shaped one another over time. She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Stajich Lab at the University of California, Riverside, working on the bioinformatics of pangenomics across three human fungal pathogens.
A dedicated advocate for accessible science, Carolina frequently collaborates with international institutions to champion bilingual scientific outreach in both English and Spanish.
Education:
Ph.D. in Botany and Plant Pathology (Mycology), Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA (2023).
M.S. in Biological Sciences (Systematics), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico (2014)
B.S. in Biology–Natural Resources (With Honors), Universidad de Sonora, Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico (2010)
Further Information:
www.linkedin.com/in/carolina-piña-páez-607535a0
Selected Publications:
- Tsai, C.H., Piña Páez, C.G., & Stajich, J.E. (2026). orthoSynAssign: Refine orthogroups using synteny information. bioRxiv, 2026.08.10.744007.
- Piña Páez, C.G., Har, S.H., Tabima, J.F., & Spatafora, J.W. (2026). Isolation and connectivity: Population structure of an ectomycorrhizal truffle in the fragmented mountain landscape of the Madrean Sky Island Archipelago. Molecular Ecology, 35(13), e70452.
- Rajesh-Khanna, D.S., Piña Páez, C.G., He, S., Dolan, E.G., Mirpuri, K.S., et al. (2025). Coordinated regulation of Mdr1- and Cdr1-mediated protection from antifungals by the Mrr1 transcription factor in emerging Candida spp. mBio, 16(11), e01323-25.
- Piña Páez, C.G., Gervers, K.A., Martin, J.A., Tabima, J.F., Luoma, D.L., et al. (2024). Suillus hypogaeus: First record of a truffle Suillus. Mycologia, 116(5), 764–774.
- Piña Páez, C.G., Carson, A.R., Luoma, D.L., & Spatafora, J.W. (2023). Truffles in the sky: The impact of stochastic and deterministic drivers on Rhizopogon communities of the Madrean sky island archipelago. Fungal Ecology, 63, 101245.
- Piña Páez, C.G., Healy, R.A., Guevara, G., Orijel, R.G., Castellano, M.A., Cázares, E., et al. (2021). Greetings from belowground: Two new species of truffles in the genus Pachyphlodes (Pezizaceae, Pezizales) from México. MycoKeys, 82, 159–171.
- Eberhart, J., Trappe, J., Piña Páez, C.G., & Bonito, G. (2020). Tuber luomae, a new spiny-spored truffle species from the Pacific Northwest, USA. Fungal Systematics and Evolution, 6(1), 299–304.