Grant: Operating Grant

There is a great need for new antifungal drugs. Patients who have organ or tissue transplants and many cancer patients have depressed immure systems that make them very susceptible to fungal infections. However there are very few non-toxic drugs that can be used to kill these pathogens. To address this clinical need, we have recently developed new methods to combine compounds resulting in highly targeted approaches toward antifungal agents. These combinations have the potential to act as novel combination therapies. We propose to systematically explore compound combinations against a number of fungal pathogens and determine the mode of action of the most promising pairs using a genomic platform in yeast, a model fungus for which we have extensive genetic tools and experience. The results of this study will inform new drug development in clinical area often ignored by the pharmaceutical industry.