Grant: Project Grant

Candida albicans is an opportunistic pathogen responsible for various non-life-threatening infections, such as oral thrush and vaginitis. This pathogen is also 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 completely 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 in order to identify new targets for the development of drugs to treat fungal infections. We will use systematic functional genomic approaches to decipher the regulatory mechanisms that control the metabolic flexibility of this yeast under low oxygen concentration which is the predominant condition inside the host. 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 the sensing and adaptation to oxygen level variation in eukaryotic organisms.