Skip to main content
European Commission logo print header

Mitochondria as regulators of fungal virulence

Objectif

Fungal diseases represent a significant and growing threat to human health, particularly since the AIDS pandemic and increasing use of immunosuppressive drugs has produced a massive population of people with impaired immunity who are vulnerable to fungal infections. A great challenge in medical mycology is to understand how fungal virulence evolves. The vast majority of fungal species are not human pathogens and, for those that are, virulence appears to have evolved independently on many different occasions. Identifying the step(s) that convert an environmental fungus into a human pathogen, as well as subsequent changes in virulence within a pathogenic lineage, is therefore of fundamental importance. Based on a number of lines of evidence, I hypothesise that a critical regulator of fungal virulence in animal hosts is the activity of the fungal mitochondrion, an energy-generating organelle present in almost all eukaryotes. I propose to test this hypothesis comprehensively by combining genetic and cell biological approaches with high-resolution imaging methods.

Appel à propositions

ERC-2013-CoG
Voir d’autres projets de cet appel

Régime de financement

ERC-CG - ERC Consolidator Grants

Institution d’accueil

THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM
Contribution de l’UE
€ 1 991 629,00
Adresse
Edgbaston
B15 2TT Birmingham
Royaume-Uni

Voir sur la carte

Région
West Midlands (England) West Midlands Birmingham
Type d’activité
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Chercheur principal
Robin Charles May (Dr.)
Contact administratif
Xavier Rodde (Mr.)
Liens
Coût total
Aucune donnée

Bénéficiaires (1)