Thesis supervisor: László Norbert Galgóczi
Location of studies (in Hungarian): University of Szeged, Faculty of Science and Informatics, Department of Biotechnology Abbreviation of location of studies: SZTE
Description of the research topic:
In spite of the emerging number of life-threatening fungal infections with high mortality rates caused by drug-resistant strains, and the fact that the recently applied prolonged antifungal therapies can seriously damage the host’s organs, the initiation to develop effective and safely applicable new antifungal drugs is still neglected for human welfare. The already intensively studied antifungal proteins from filamentous Ascomycetes and their functional peptide derivatives show high fungal-specificity and antimicrobial efficacy, thus they represent promising candidates to develop fundamental new antifungal therapeutic strategies to overcome global antifungal challenges. Although, knowledge about the potential of fungi to develop resistance mechanism to antifungal proteins, and about the influence of antifungal protein resistance mechanisms on the physiology of fungi is still limited which hampers their application as potential new antifungal drugs. The announced PhD project focuses to these aspects. These goals will be achieved with a multidisciplinary approach that integrates laboratory microevolution, metabolic fitness investigation, abiotic and biotic stress factor tolerance analyses, genome sequencing, transcriptome meta-analysis, virulence analysis, antifungal susceptibility testing, recombinant protein expression, and peptide synthesis. The accomplishment of present project provides the first step toward new fungal-specific antifungal drug development not just in the medical treatment, but also in the pest control and food preservation with worldwide economic and societal impact.
Required language skills: English Further requirements: Basic knowledge in microbiological and protein works.
Number of students who can be accepted: 2
Deadline for application: 2022-12-31
2024. IV. 17. ODT ülés Az ODT következő ülésére 2024. június 14-én, pénteken 10.00 órakor kerül sor a Semmelweis Egyetem Szenátusi termében (Bp. Üllői út 26. I. emelet).
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