Three poster presenters supported by the Fungal Infection Trust attended the 350-strong Advances Against Aspergillosis and Mucormycosis in Milan, January 25-27, 2024. These travel grants were awarded to Lovely Gupta (Amity University, India) and Ratuja Patil (Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague), Irene Kyrmizi (University of Crete, Greece.
Dr Kyrmizi’s work on using lipid-lowering drugs to restore killing of Aspergillus in the body, and defining the mechanism of action won a joint first poster prize at the meeting. She said: “Thank you for supporting my travel to allow me to present my abstract and poster at this great AAAM conference in Milan. The award of this poster prize is truly a great honour!”
Dr Geoffrey Scott was a national figure microbiology and infectious disease for quarter of a century, and chaired the Fungal infection Trust for 10 years. This travel scholarship for educational purposes was created after his death in 2023 and epitomises his unwavering career support of young professionals to continue to learn and grow in in their careers.
Their posters were:
Irene Kyrmizi: Harnessing cholesterol metabolism restores antifungal activity of macrophages in chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) via ROS-independent activation of LC3 associated phagocytosis (LAP).
Lovely Gupta: Evaluating the Multifaceted Approach of Eugenol-Derived Glycoconjugate Against Aspergillus fumigatus: Mechanistic Insights into Cell Wall Disruption, Gene Expression, and Safety Profiling
Ratuja Patil: Tug-of-war for iron between Aspergillus fumigatus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa
The Fungal Infection Trust’s LIFE Worldwide, Microfungi and Aspergillus Website were also profiled at the meeting. [hyperlink]