Pedro Lopes (Umeå University, Dept. of Clinical Microbiology) will defend his thesis entitled " Candida albicans adaption to host microenvironments drives immune evasion" 5 October 2018 at 9 a.m. Venue: Major Groove, Building 6L, Norrlands Universitetssjukhus.
Opponent: Professor Allistair Brown, Aberdeen Fungal Group, Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen, UK.
Immunosuppressed patients are frequently afflicted with severe mycoses caused by opportunistic fungal pathogens. Besides being a commensal colonizing predominantly skin and mucosal surfaces, Candida albicans is the most common human fungal pathogen. Mast cells are present in tissues prone to fungal colonization being expectedly among the first immune cells to get into contact with C. albicans. Here we describe how mast cells acted as tissue sentinels and modulated initial antifungal immune responses. Mast cells response was able to reduce fungal viability and signaled for neutrophil infiltration to the tissue.