Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

Cryptococcosis is a disease caused by the fungus Cryptococcus and is common in British Columbia. Cryptococcus primarily infects AIDS patients causing 650,000 deaths yearly. Also, cryptococcosis is an emerging disease in people with a healthy immune system. Mechanisms of survival of the pathogen in humans are not known. The disease commences by inhalation of spores that multiply inside white cells (macrophages) residing in the lungs. These cells are responsible to destroy the invading pathogens. Cryptococcus is able to escape these infected macrophages, and reaches the brain where it establishes a lethal infection (meningitis). In order to establish a successful infection, Cryptococcus must obtain iron from the host. The objective of this study is to understand how the pathogen obtains iron from infected macrophages. We propose to apply state-of-the-art technology to identify mechanisms of iron acquisition in the pathogen upon infection. We expect that elucidating these mechanisms in the pathogen will significantly contribute to the understanding of the host-pathogen interaction. This knowledge will contribute to the design of new drugs against Cryptococcus by blocking its iron uptake pathways.