Grant: Project Grant

Candida albicans is an opportunistic pathogen that is a major cause of mortality in bloodstream infections, especially in immunosuppressed individuals. The arsenal of clinically active antifungal compounds is limited because of the eukaryotic nature of this yeast, which makes it similar to its human host. In addition, many cases of clinical resistance to all anti-Candida drugs have been reported. Currently, the pipeline of pharmaceutical companies for new drugs targeting C. albicans infections is almost dry. Thus, discovery of new drugs is of utmost urgency to fight C. albicans infections. Our group focus on study of mechanisms controlling key biological processes required for C. albicans to adapt inside the host to identify new targets for the development of drugs to treat fungal infections. We will use cutting-edge genomic approaches to decipher the regulatory mechanisms that control different facets of C. albicans virulence. We will focus on mechanisms that rearrange the state of the chromatin and impact the transcription of virulence-related processes. This will allow for the identification of exploitable biological targets to develop new antifungal drugs in addition to a better and a consensual knowledge of process involved in chromatin remodeling in fungal pathogens.