ISHAM NEWS! (25-10-2010)

Dear , A new educational Case of the Month has been placed on our homepage: a fungus that looks like a yeast and turned out to be a melanized filamentous fungus! It was donated by Luciano Polonelli. You will also notice that our Forum has been simplified. An easy-do communication tool with other ISHAM members is now available in your member area.  

A committee of the ECMM-ISHAM Working Group Zygomycoses organizes a workshop on Zygomycete biodiversity entitled “The dynamics of zygomycete research in a changing world” in Utrecht, The Netherlands, on 3-5 March, 2011. A preliminary program is available on the website here. The workshop will be offered free of charge.

The Croatian Microbiological Society will organize a meeting entitled “Power of fungi and mycotoxins in health and disease” in Primošten, Croatia, 19-22 October, 2011. Program sections are fungal diseases of humans, animals and plants, antifungal research and therapy, mycotoxins and mycotoxicoses. The website can be found here.

The latest report of the ECMM-ISHAM Working Group “Fungiscope”, the global registry of rare fungal infections, can be found here.

A PhD Thesis has been published by Montarop Sudhadham entitled “Exophiala dermatitidis: an opportunistic pathogen emerging from the tropical rain forest”. A free PDF of the book is available through our Thesis service in your ISHAM member area. A very limited number of hard copies is available from van.den.berg@cbs.knaw.nl. Please specify your ISHAM member number.

The 12th Western Pacific Congress on Chemotherapy and Infectious Diseases entitled “New Pathogens New Challenges” will be held in Singapore, 2-5 December, 2010. For information and registration, see the website here.

The laboratory manual Introduction to “Food- and Airborne Fungi” by Samson et al. will be available from 15 November onwards. This book is recommended for the identification of contaminants, supplementing the “Atlas of Clinical Fungi”  and is therefore also useful in the medical laboratory. It can be ordered here.

The 4th FEBS Advanced Lecture Course “Human Pathogens: Molecular Mechanisms of Host-Pathogen Interactions and Virulence” will be held in La Colle sur Loup, France,  7-13 may, 2011. This course has been designed to provide the students with both an overview of the current knowledge and an update on the most recent advancements in several fields that encompass most of the molecular research conducted on fungal pathogens. The following topics will be covered in five main symposia: genomics, evolution and epidemiology, environmental sensing and fungal responses, antifungal strategies and mechanisms of resistance and host-pathogen interactions. A last symposium will address the impact of systems biology in the study of fungal pathogens. For info, see here.

A report of the meeting "First Forum on Advances of Aspergillus and Aspergillosis”, held in Chengdu, China, can be found here.

A new book on Candida albicans methods and protocols has appeared, edited by Cihlar & Calderone. For information on this very useful publication, see here.

The Dermatophyte Genome Steering Committee, the Broad Institute and the Hans Knoell Institute are pleased to announce that the sequencing and annotation of seven dermatophyte genomes is complete and can be accessed at the Dermatophyte Comparative Database see here.  The seven sequenced genomes include Trichophyton rubrum, T. tonsurans, T. equinum, T. verrucosum, Microsporum canis, M. gypseum and Arthoderma benhamiae. If you are interested in contributing to the biological analyses of these genome sequences, please contact Ted White at ted.white@sbri.org for details.