FUNgalSnelders lab

A. fumigatus is ubiquitously found in nature facilitated by wind-borne dispersal of spores and its main habitat is decaying plant material. It can also cause severe invasive infections in the lungs of immunocompromised patients. Luckily there are highly effective antifungal drugs available and the azoles are the most important class to manage Aspergillus disease. Unfortunately a global emergence of azole resistance poses a major threat to manage fungal disease. Our research has shown that the use of agricultural azoles has facilitated emergence of azole resistance, a typical One Health problem. For our research we study the fungus where environment and human health interact by using genetic approaches such as sexual crosses, evolutionary lines, competition experiments, whole genome sequencing, bioinformatics and more.

We are involved in the NWO GreenIII project entitled “One health consequences of circularity; what lessons to learn from the saprophytic and human pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus?” The objectives of this project are to (i) use the diversity of organic waste disposal in the bulb-sector to discern the key factors driving resistance development, (ii) use these factors to draw up an intervention plan that will be tested in the laboratory and on-site, and (iii) extend the obtained knowledge to general organic waste disposal to assess resistance and health risk across the system. Hylke Kortenbosch is appointed as the PhD student on this project.

With the Aspasia NWO funding we are currently setting up new techniques in our lab such as the CRISPRcas9, Galleria Mellonella and receiving technical support from Dr. Francisca Reyes Marquez.

Currently we are busy applying for funding to expand the group so if you are interested in a co-application please send me a message.