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PhD Studentship

An in vitro model system to assay kidney-pathogen interactions determining outcome of Candida albicans infection

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At a glance

Completed
Award date
October 2010 - September 2014
Grant amount
£120,000
Principal investigator
Dr Donna MacCallum
Institute
University of Aberdeen

R

  • Replacement
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Application abstract

Candida albicans is a human commensal organism that can cause life-threatening systemic infections in severely ill patients. The mouse intravenous challenge model is commonly used to model this infection. However, recent research has found that it is early events in the kidney that generate damaging immune responses and determine gross outcome of infection. Therefore, identification of the renal cells involved in these responses will allow development of an in vitro assay to model these events.

Impacts

Publications

  1. Mackie J et al. (2016). Host-Imposed Copper Poisoning Impacts Fungal Micronutrient Acquisition during Systemic Candida albicans Infections. PloS One 11(6):e0158683. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0158683
  2. Szabo EK and MacCallum DM (2014). A novel renal epithelial cell in vitro assay to assess Candida albicans virulence. Virulence 5(2):286-96. doi: 10.4161/viru.27046
  3. Szabo EK and MacCallum DM (2011). The contribution of mouse models to our understanding of systemic candidiasis. FEMS Microbiol Lett 320(1):1-8. doi:10.1111/j.1574-6968.2011.02262.x