NEWS Within the framework of the UCMR Distinguished Guests Seminars Series, professor Matthew Fisher gives a lecture on fungal pathogens and future risks for the global life-support system.
Matthew Fisher, Professor of Fungal Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London School of Public Health
Image Imperial College LondonTime: Thursday 17 October at 15-16
Venue: Carl Kempe salen (Stora hörsalen) at KBC, Umeå University
Host: Constantin Urban, Department of Clinical Microbiology
Registration: Registration is not needed
Matthew Fisher, Professor of Fungal Disease Epidemiology, MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis in the Imperial College London School of Public Health
Expertise: eco-evolutionary fungal ecology
The Kingdom Fungi is a biodiverse and essential component of our habitable Planet. However, recent decades have seen an increase in the number of pathogenic fungi infecting natural populations and managed landscapes; fungi are increasingly recognized as presenting a worldwide threat to food security and the healthy functioning of ecosystems. In parallel, clinicians and biomedical scientists are fighting emerging fungal pathogens that infect millions of people every year and there are signs that fungi are become increasingly adapted to resist frontline antifungal therapies. Traditional approaches to studying the biology of fungal infections are currently being transformed by the growing number of high-quality assembled genomes, by world-wide surveys of fungi and by new technological and informatic strategies.
This talk will discuss current challenges in analysing emerging fungal diseases in order to identify weaknesses in our armamentarium against fungal infections. Rapid progress is being made in our understanding of how to manage fungal disease in clinical, agricultural, and natural settings, however mass-deployment of antifungal drugs, the development of monocultures and massive international trade has brought new risks to health, biodiversity and biosecurity. This talk will discuss how modern genomic toolkits are generating insights into how we can understand and tackle the emerging fungal threat.
His research group is focused on developing genomic, epidemiological, and experimental models to uncover the factors driving fungal infections in order to develop new methods of diagnosis and control. He leads NERC and Wellcome Trust program award investigating the emergence of antifungal resistance in the pulmonary pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus and has interests in changing human exposure to bioaerosols as well as several globally emerging fungal pathogens. Fisher is currently a member of the Defra Air Quality Expert Group and is a Clarivate Highly Cited author, 2019-2023