Adapt or die – How a fungal pathogen adapts to its host

Wednesday 15 February 2012, 12.15PM

Speaker: Professor Alistair Brown, University of Aberdeen

Host: Dr Marjan van der Woude

Abstract:

Candida albicans is a major fungal pathogen of humans, causing frequent mucosal infections (thrush) in otherwise healthy individuals, and life-threatening systemic infections in immunocompromised patients. The success of C. albicans as a pathogen depends not only upon virulence factors but also upon fitness attributes such as a high degree of metabolic flexibility plus robust stress responses.  Regent genomic, molecular and cellular studies have suggested that stress and metabolic adaptation are intimately linked in C. albicans.  Presumably this promotes effective adaptation of the fungus to the diverse niches it can occupy in its human host.

Location: Q/014

Email: cii@york.ac.uk

Telephone: 01904 328876