Dr Michael Bottery - University of Manchester

Dr Michael Bottery

The global emergence of antifungal resistance; inevitable or avoidable?

Serious fungal infections pose a unique challenge to human health, causing severe and life-threatening disease. Antifungal medications are essential for the treatment of these infections, but resistance is rapidly emerging across the globe. This is particularly concerning for Aspergillus fumigatus, which is responsible for more deaths than any other fungal pathogen. Understanding the factors driving the remarkable adaptability of A. fumigatus is essential for developing effective strategies to mitigate the risk of resistance emergence. In this talk, I will discuss how adaptability is embedded within the life cycle of A. fumigatus, allowing it to rapidly adapt to anthropogenic stressors—particularly the intensive use of fungicides as agricultural pesticides. Because environmental human fungal pathogens are continuously exposed to sub-lethal concentrations of azole fungicides in fields and compost heaps (which are analogous to antifungals used in the clinic), the agricultural sector has inadvertently become an evolutionary incubator for pan-drug-resistant fungal pathogens that directly infect humans from the environment.