BMS Talks: Janet Quinn - Killer Fungi: A Clear and Present Danger to Life on Earth

We share our planet with millions of different types of fungi, which perform numerous functions that make our planet habitable. However, there is a dark side to this Fungal Kingdom. New fungi are emerging that are wiping out susceptible amphibians and bats, and others are having a devastating effect on crops thus threatening world food security. This is caused both by the accidental spread of hardy fungal spores into new places due to the globalization of trade, and the disruption of natural environments which creates breeding grounds for new fungi to evolve. As humans, we are also at increasing risk from killer fungi - over 1.5 million people are killed every year by a handful of fungal species - that’s a lot more than other infectious diseases we hear much more about such as malaria and superbugs such as MRSA. In this talk, I’ll give an overview of some of the planet’s fungal foes and how we can tackle emerging fungal infections.

Professor Jan Quinn.

Jan did her PhD at Newcastle University on autoimmunity, but her first post-doc was on fungi with Prof Craig Peterson, at UMASS Med Centre in the USA and she never looked back! After obtaining an MRC Career Development award in 2000, Jan started to study stress responses in pathogenic fungi and this continues to be her research focus. Jan was appointed as a Lecturer at Newcastle University in 2004 and she steadily rose through the ranks receiving a Professorship in 2014. She continues to be intrigued by the strategies used by human pathogenic fungi to survive in hostile host environments, and is committed to raising the profile of killer fungi as this continues to be an under-researched area compared to that on other infectious agents such as bacteria and viruses.