Grant award for First Study of Emerging Yeast Species

An emerging species of yeast, Candida parapsilosis is causing increasing numbers of infections because it spreads easily from medical devices into the blood stream of patients. Science Foundation Ireland has recently awarded almost €1 million to Dr. Geraldine Butler of the Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research, Dublin for her pioneering studies of this yeast.

As the yeast grows on the plastic surface of catheters, heart valves or intravenous lines, it forms a thin film called a biofilm, which is difficult to destroy even with antifungal drugs. Infection with yeast can be life threatening in newborn babies, the elderly or any patient whose immune system is not strong enough to fight the bacteria. In many cases, the only treatment choice involves first removing the medical device itself.

Up until now the majority of research has focused on Candida albicans but a recent worldwide study has shown that almost half of all yeast infections are caused by other species of yeast. As the first research group to study C. parapsilosis at a detailed molecular level, Dr. Butler and her team will first try to uncover the genetic makeup of this yeast and then use this information to design in-house genetic techniques to investigate how the yeast grows on the surfaces of medical devices.

Dr. Geraldine Butler hopes that the research carried out over next the four years under funding from Science Foundation Ireland will “increase the current understanding of the organism and develop potential drug targets”.

Media Contact

Elaine Quinn alfa

More Information:

http://www.ucd.ie/conway

All latest news from the category: Health and Medicine

This subject area encompasses research and studies in the field of human medicine.

Among the wide-ranging list of topics covered here are anesthesiology, anatomy, surgery, human genetics, hygiene and environmental medicine, internal medicine, neurology, pharmacology, physiology, urology and dental medicine.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors