Medical Research Council Centre for Medical Mycology

医学研究委员会医学真菌学中心

• 批准号: MR/V033417/1
• 负责人: Gordon Brown
• 金额: $ 211.89万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FV033417%2F1
• 关键词: Medical; Research; Council; Centre; Mycology

Fungi have a major impact on global health. These organisms infect billions of people annually, and global mortality figures for fungal diseases rival or exceed those for tuberculosis and malaria. Despite the high rates of death and the loss of health they cause, the enormous impact of fungi on human health is not widely appreciated, and fungal infections remain understudied compared with other diseases. Moreover, we are discovering new fungal species that cause life threatening infections, and learning that fungi can aggravate other serious infections, such as influenza or COVID19. There is a pressing need for more research in this field. There are three priorities that require urgent attention if we are to successfully combat fungal infections. (i) We need to improve our ability to detect fungal infections in patients. (ii) We need to use our existing drugs more wisely and to generate improved antifungal drugs (especially to overcome a worrying increase in drug resistance). (iii) We need to enhance the understanding of how fungi cause disease and how our immune system combats these infections, to enable us to exploit this knowledge for novel therapies. Importantly, there is a world-wide shortage of scientists and doctors who are working in this field, and this is the main factor hindering our ability to tackle these challenges.The Medical Research Council Centre for Medical Mycology (MRC CMM) is meeting this global challenge by pioneering interdisciplinary research, establishing international units in low and middle income regions of the world that suffer high burdens of fungal infections, and increasing capacity by training the next generation of scientists and doctors. We are also raising awareness and influencing policy regarding the management of fungal diseases within the scientific and medical communities, and the general public. Since its launch in Aberdeen in 2016, and relocation to Exeter in 2019, the MRC CMM has grown considerably. We have established a satellite site in Africa (the AFGrica Unit in Cape Town) and will establish similar Units in South America (Brazil) and in Asia (tbc). The objectives of these Units are to promote research and training in fungal diseases relevant to those geographic regions. Through our MRC Centre and its satellite Units, we will promote awareness of fungal disease and of our activities through an ambitious programme of engagement that targets key audiences.During the next quinquennium we will recruit two outstanding scientists who will enhance and expand the Centre's broad and complementary expertise in key areas. Our research will be focussed into five exciting and interdisciplinary themes that address major challenges facing this field. A key objective of the MRC CMM is to increase capacity in medical mycology in the UK and globally by delivering an outstanding cohort of researchers through our world leading training programmes. This will include a bespoke MRes-PhD programme that will provide 15 students with a broad interdisciplinary training that is not available anywhere else; 2 Early Career Fellowships to fast-track an independent research career in medical mycology for exceptional individuals; 3 PhD Fellowships for excellent clinicians wishing to pursue a clinical academic career in medical mycology; 10 summer scholarships for medical students, to stimulate their interest in academia and in medical mycology; and to promote training in medical mycology in low and middle income countries through our International Units via locally funded Studentships and Fellowships, bilateral exchanges, workshops and training courses. These Fellows, PhD students and clinical trainees will foster integration across the Centre and beyond, and help enable our innovative interdisciplinary research programmes. Importantly, the increased capacity offered by these individuals will greatly facilitate our ability to tackle these devastating diseases in the future.

真菌对全球健康有重大影响。这些生物每年感染数十亿人，以及真菌疾病的全球死亡人数竞争或超过结核病和疟疾的人。尽管死亡率很高，并且造成健康丧失，但真菌对人类健康的巨大影响并没有得到广泛的欣赏，与其他疾病相比，真菌感染仍在研究。此外，我们正在发现引起威胁生命感染的新真菌物种，并得知真菌会加剧其他严重的感染，例如流感或Covid19。在这一领域有更多的研究迫切需要。如果我们要成功打击真菌感染，则需要三个优先事项。 （i）我们需要提高检测患者真菌感染的能力。 （ii）我们需要更明智地使用现有药物并产生改善的抗真菌药物（尤其是克服令人担忧的耐药性增加）。 （iii）我们需要增强对真菌如何引起疾病以及我们的免疫系统如何打击这些感染的理解，以使我们能够利用这些知识将其用于新的疗法。重要的是，在这一领域工作的科学家和医生存在短缺，这是阻碍我们应对这些挑战的能力的主要因素。医学研究委员会医学真菌学中心（MRC CMM）通过开创跨学科研究，通过培训跨学科的研究，通过培训国际单位的高级委员会和娱乐性的临时型官员的临时研究来应对这一全球挑战。医生。我们还提高了有关科学和医疗社区以及公众内真菌疾病管理的认识和影响政策。自2016年在阿伯丁（Aberdeen）推出以来，MRC CMM已于2019年搬迁至埃克塞特（Exeter）。我们已经在非洲（开普敦的Afgrica单位）建立了一个卫星站点，并将在南美（巴西）和亚洲（TBC）建立类似的单位。这些单位的目标是促进与这些地理区域相关的真菌疾病研究和培训。通过我们的MRC中心及其卫星部门，我们将通过雄心勃勃的参与计划来促进对真菌疾病的认识和我们的活动，该计划以关键受众为目标。在下一个Quinquennium中，我们将招募两位杰出的科学家，他们将增强和扩展该中心在关键领域的广泛和互补的专业知识。我们的研究将专注于五个令人兴奋的跨学科主题，这些主题应对这一领域面临的主要挑战。 MRC CMM的一个关键目标是通过通过我们的世界领先的培训计划提供杰出的研究人员来提高英国和全球医学真菌学的能力。这将包括定制的MRES-PHD计划，该计划将为15名学生提供其他任何地方都无法获得的广泛跨学科培训； 2早期职业研究金，用于快速训练非凡的人的医学真菌学独立研究职业；希望从事医学真菌学临床学术职业的优秀临床医生的3奖奖学金；医学生的10个夏季奖学金，以刺激他们对学术界和医学真菌学的兴趣；并通过当地资助的学生职位和奖学金，双边交流，讲习班和培训课程来促进低收入和中等收入国家的医学真菌学培训。这些研究员，博士生和临床学员将促进整个中心及以后的融合，并有助于我们创新的跨学科研究计划。重要的是，这些人提供的能力增加将极大地促进我们将来应对这些毁灭性疾病的能力。

项目成果

Analysis of Pneumocystis Transcription Factor Evolution and Implications for Biology and Lifestyle.

• DOI: 10.1128/mbio.02711-22
• 发表时间: 2023-02-28
• 期刊: mBio
• 影响因子: 6.4

Fungal spore swelling and germination are restricted by the macrophage phagolysosome

真菌孢子的膨胀和萌发受到巨噬细胞吞噬溶酶体的限制

• DOI: 10.1016/j.funbio.2023.08.002
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Fungal Biology
• 影响因子: 2.5
• 作者: Alonso M

Candida albicans phosphate transport, facilitating nucleotide sugar biosynthesis, contributes to cell wall stability.

白色念珠菌磷酸盐转运，促进核苷酸糖生物合成，有助于细胞壁稳定性。

• DOI: 10.1099/acmi.cc2021.po0036
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Access Microbiology
• 作者: Acosta-Zaldivar M

Editorial: Invasive fungal disease in the immunocompromised host/Research Topic proceedings of the mycology 2021 meeting.

• DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2022.1033739
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology
• 影响因子: 5.7

The nature of the fungal cargo induces significantly different temporal programmes of macrophage phagocytosis.

• DOI: 10.1016/j.tcsw.2022.100082
• 发表时间: 2022-12
• 期刊: Cell surface (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
• 作者: Alonso, Maria Fernanda;Bain, Judith M.;Rudkin, Fiona M.;Erwig, Lars P.;Brown, Alistair J. P.;Gow, Neil A. R.
• 通讯作者: Gow, Neil A. R.