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🚨A random solution to a growing fungal threat🚨 Our work on random peptide mixtures reveals potent antifungal activity against multidrug-resistant pathogens like C. auris, with low resistance potential and strong biofilm activity. Now out in mBio! Congrats to John and Yael for the fantastic work 👏

Our study on a mycovirus that boosts fungal virulence is now out — and beautifully covered in this Behind the Paper piece by Amariliz Rivera Huge thanks for capturing the heart of the story so thoughtfully. @natmicrobiol.nature.com rdcu.be/eB9yg

4 years ago I was honored to host the legendary Elio Schaechter in the microbiology journal club, when he was only 93 yo... Elio told us about very peculiar microbes that travel 1 mm/sec, reside inside mitochondria, ride a microbial bus...He named my kids who also joined "micro microbiologists" RIP

VERY INTERESTING AfuPmV-1M, a dsRNA mycovirus in 𝘼𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙜𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙪𝙨 𝙛𝙪𝙢𝙞𝙜𝙖𝙩𝙖𝙨, boosts fungal stress tolerance, melanin, virulence In vivo, antiviral (ribavirin) treatment cut viral load and improved mouse survival—mycoviruses are hidden “backseat drivers” of fungal disease www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I thought the Aspergillus fumigatus pan-genome was pretty wild when we started this project. Aspergillus flavus said, "hold my beer..." Not only does it have a strong population structure with differences between environmental and clinical strains, only 58%of genes are conserved across the species!

The rising prevalence of invasive fungal infections, particularly among immunocompromised individuals, has become a critical public health concern. However, antifungal drug development has not kept pace with this growing need, and treatment options remain limited to a small number of drug classes. The emergence of multidrug-resistant fungal pathogens, such as Candida auris, further exacerbates this crisis by reducing the efficacy of existing therapeutics and increasing the risk of treatment failure. In this study, we evaluate the antifungal potential of FK20, a random peptide mixture (RPM) composed of L-phenylalanine and L-lysine. FK20 displays potent activity against C. auris and other clinically relevant Candida species, impairs biofilm formation, and exhibits synergy with caspofungin. Importantly, FK20 limits the emergence of resistance and demonstrates therapeutic efficacy in a murine model of systemic candidiasis. These findings establish RPMs as a promising new class of antifungals with broad-spectrum activity and clinical potential against drug-resistant fungal infections.

Thrilled to share that the final chapter of my PhD with @rokaslab.bsky.social is now out in @natcomms.nature.com 🎉 Read it to find out how population structure impacts pathogenicity in Aspergillus flavus, a fungus that infects humans 🧪 rdcu.be/eAToj