Dr. Lorenz is a native of Atlanta whose first research experiences in infectious diseases was at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studying malaria and HIV. He received his B.A. in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from Rice University. He then joined the Ph.D. Program in Cellular and Molecular Biology at Duke University, studying signaling pathways that regulate differentiation in the model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae in the laboratory of Dr. Joseph Heitman. He began research in Candida with Dr. Gerald Fink at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA. He has been on faculty at the University of Texas Medical School since 2003.