£3.2 million boost from Medical Research Council to preserve antifungal drugs
A major £3.2million grant will fund the development of new treatments for fungal diseases in the battle against global antifungal drug resistance.
The Medical Research Council (MRC) Programme grant led by Professor Elaine Bignell, Co-Director of the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology (MRC CMM) at the University of Exeter, brings together an alliance of world leading centres), St. George’s University Hospital London and the University of Liverpool to tackle antifungal resistance via a consortium called Fungi-CARE (Combinations Against Resistance Emergence), comprised of scientists, clinicians and pharmacologists.
Fungal diseases kill more than a million people annually. The new research programme will focus upon Candida species, which are found on and in the human body, and that can cause fatal infections usually in patients with weakened immunity or after surgery. There are very few antifungal drugs and Candida species are increasingly resistant to them, calling for urgent solutions.
The ambition of Fungi-CARE is to find new ways to improve how we use antifungal agents. Elaine Bignell, Principal Investigator of the project, said: “Antifungal drug resistance is a global threat, the suppression of which requires connected networks of multidisciplinary researchers. We are delighted that the MRC has provided this essential funding to find solutions for antifungal drug resistance, and we look forward to joining forces to tackle this problem”.
Professor William Hope, Dame Sally Davies Chair of AMR Research and Co-Investigator on the project, said: “Antifungal drug resistance progressively erodes the medical and societal value of antifungal drugs that are needed to support the most vulnerable patients. Innovative approaches to this problem have the ability to interrupt boom-bust cycles of antifungal drug development whereby new drugs are progressively lost to the emergence of resistance.”
Professor Tihana Bicanic, Professor of Infectious Diseases and Mycology at St George’s University of London, added: “Through optimising antifungal drug combinations, we have prevented resistance and halved the acute mortality from fungal meningitis in Africa, and we are now very excited to work together to develop and test similar approaches for the other commonest life-threatening fungal infections globally, including invasive candidiasis.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has sounded the alarm on the increasing danger posed by infection with Candida species and implications for public health. Invasive Candidiasis, the most common invasive fungal infection in the UK, affects thousands annually with patients in intensive care units particularly susceptible.
The Medical Research Council Centre for Medical Mycology (MRC CMM) is a £25 million joint venture between the MRC and the University of Exeter, and represents one of the most ambitious strategic investments in medical mycology worldwide. The Centre has a global impact with satellite units in South Africa and Brazil and a new unit planned in Asia, and is committed to pioneering cross-disciplinary research that covers areas of scientific, translational and clinical importance.
The MRC CMM hosts cutting-edge medical mycology research and technologies and is home to 24 academic staff and Early Career Fellows, 76 medical mycology trainees and 78 international collaborators, making it one of the largest medical mycology organisations in the world.
Co-Investigators: Professor Neil Gow (University of Exeter), Dr Jane Usher (University of Exeter), Professor Tihana Bicanic (St George’s University of London), Professor Tom Harrison (St George’s University of London), Professor William Hope (University of Liverpool) and Dr Kat Stott (University of Liverpool)
