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The laborious path of a fungal toxin
The toxin Candidalysin of the yeast Candida albicans is incorporated into an unusual protein structure during an infection, the composition of which has so far been a mystery to scientists. Researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (Leibniz-HKI) have now…
Professor Neil Gow Honorary Member of FungiNet
On the annual meeting of the Collaborative Research Center/Transregio FungiNet on October 4-5, 2023, Professor Neil Gow was honored with an Honory Membership of FungiNet. Neil has been a strong supporter of FungiNet with extremely valuable advice. He is also one of the world's leading scientist…
A fungus gets comfortable
Aspergillus fumigatus strains that infect humans have a significantly altered metabolism compared to other strains in the environment. At the same time, infection with the fungus leads to an apparent change in the human lung microbiome. Researchers at the Leibniz-HKI came to this conclusion after us…
Bacterial signallers in the soil
Bacteria of the genus Streptomyces produce chemical substances called arginoketides, to which many other microorganisms react: Bacteria form biofilms, algae join together to form aggregates, and fungi produce signalling substances that they would not otherwise produce triggering new responses from o…
Small differences with a big effect
Not everyone reacts to infectious agents in the same way: some fall ill very severely, others only slightly, and still others possibly not at all. There are many different reasons for this variability. One important reason is that the genome of different people differs from one another. For example,…
Intestinal bacteria influence the growth of fungi
The number of infections with the fungus Candida auris is also increasing in Germany. This is shown in a new study by research teams from Würzburg, Jena and Berlin. Despite low numbers, scientists advise precautionary measures. Among the yeasts from the Candida genus that cause infections in humans,…
Intestinal bacteria influence the growth of fungi
The bacteria present in the intestine provide information about the quantities of fungi of the potentially disease-causing Candida genus. Among them, and surprisingly, are lactic acid bacteria that are known for their protective effect against fungal infections. The findings of researchers at the Le…
Fungal spores hijack lung cells
The pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus escapes elimination from surface cells of the human lung by binding to a human protein. In doing so, it is able to nest in so called phagosomes, confined areas in the lung cells, and thus prevents cell processes that would kill the fungus from being set in…
“Too little money is invested in research on life-threatening fungal infections”
The WHO has published a list of the most important fungal pathogens for the first time at the end of 2022, thus highlighting the high importance of research on the topic of fungal infections. Leibniz-HKI director Axel Brakhage explains his assessment of the WHO list and classifies its importance for…
more… “Too little money is invested in research on life-threatening fungal infections”
Scientific image analysis for everyone
The software JIPipe was developed by scientists at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (Leibniz-HKI) and significantly simplifies the analysis of images generated in research. Users can create flowcharts according to their application needs and thus perform autom…