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The taste of a fungus: recognition of Candida by the innate immune system

Published on July 9, 2012   34 min

A selection of talks on Microbiology

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0:00
My name is Neil Gow. I'm part of the Aberdeen Fungal Group in the Institute of Medical Sciences at Aberdeen University. My Henry Stewart talk entitled The Taste of a Fungus: Recognition of Candida by the Innate Immune System.
0:17
First, some background information about fungal infections. This slide shows the three major organisms that cause serious systemic fungal infections; Candida, Aspergillus, and Cryptococcus. As you can see, there are approximately two million people each year who acquire fungal infection and the mortality rates for systemic fungal infections are typically between 40 and 80 percent which easily rival the worst figures that are achieved for bacterial infections of humans. It's estimated that a quarter of the world's population has infected fungal infections of the skin and nails and fungi can cause severe problems with allergy. The cost of fungal infections is also extremely high approximately 1,000 pounds per patient a day to protect the vulnerable cancer patient from fungal infection and consequently, the global anti-fungal market is extremely high as well in the region of seven billion dollars per annum.
1:25
The focus of this lecture will be on the fungus Candida albicans. Candida species can cause a range of types of infection including superficial infections of the mucosa, seen here in this case of oral thrush in this baby due to invasive systemic fungal infections and septicemia illustrated with these abscesses you can see in this kidney section on the left-hand side.

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The taste of a fungus: recognition of Candida by the innate immune system

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