Grant: Project Grant

Fungal pathogens are critically important threats to global health with over 300 million people affected by serious fungal diseases worldwide. In Canada, pathogenic fungi are a growing public health concern with the evolution of drug-resistant strains and the emergence of new pathogens. Fungal pathogens are a leading cause of human mortality, particularily among the ever-increasing population of immunocompromised individuals. The treatment of fungal infections is challenging given the similarities of potential targets in the human host, the requirement for prolonged treatment regimens, and a limited selection of clinically effective, nontoxic antifungal therapeutic options. My research project aims to define how a fungal pathogen interacts with the host and understand why the host is unable to clear infection. This information will provide new insight into how fungi cause disease and the mechanisms used to evade the immune response. We also aim to identify new strategies to perturb the interaction between pathogen and host to reduce our reliance on current antifungals for treatment options. This information would support the reduction of selective pressure against antifungal-resistant strains and provide new tools against emerging resistant strains. Focusing on Cryptococcus neoformans, a highly-prevalent fungal pathogen among immunocompromised individuals, we will leverage our expertise and preliminary data of the interaction between host and pathogen at the protein level to assess options for reducing fungal virulence and combatting infection.