MRC Centre for Medical Mycology

尽管真菌每年感染数十亿人，但真菌对全球疾病负担的主要贡献并未得到广泛认可。虽然大多数感染是不危及生命的浅表感染，如运动员的脚，数以百万计的人感染侵袭性真菌疾病，导致全球死亡率数字与结核病或疟疾相媲美。尽管其巨大的负担和高死亡率，真菌感染与其他传染病相比仍然研究不足，迫切需要在这一领域进行更多的研究。该领域的专家，包括阿伯丁的科学家，已经确定了三个需要迫切关注的优先事项：（i）提高我们检测真菌感染的能力，（ii）产生更好的抗真菌药物，（iii）加强对真菌免疫及其利用的理解来对抗这些疾病。在应对这些挑战方面取得的有限进展在很大程度上是由于英国和世界各地缺乏在这一领域工作的基础和临床科学家。英国有一个小型但高度活跃的真菌疾病科学家社区（医学真菌学家），其中最大的团队位于阿伯丁大学（阿伯丁真菌小组，AFG）。AFG由11个独立的研究团队组成，总人数约80人，是国际公认的该领域的领导小组。我们的目标是通过建立一个世界领先的MRC卓越中心，在医学真菌学（MCMM）的研究和培训中，在AFG的各种专业知识中实现最大的协同潜力。MCMM将专注于进行尖端的跨学科研究，并培训下一代科学家，以提高英国这一被忽视领域的研究能力。建立MCMM将促进互补领域的专业知识完全整合到六个令人兴奋的研究主题，解决这个领域的关键优先事项。此外，MCMM的创建将导致两名学者的招聘，他们的专业知识将为目前的团队增加重要的补充价值，并使我们的研究能力扩展到重要的新领域。一个职位将在生物信息学，这将研究和帮助处理我们的大量生物数据集。这篇文章将授权新技术，使我们能够获得对真菌疾病机制的重要见解。第二个职位将在免疫学，除了提供尖端科学，将有助于促进我们的科学发现转化为新的诊断，预防和治疗应用。MCMM也将被用作一个平台，以提高认识和影响政策，在更广泛的学术界和公众真菌疾病的管理。MCMM的一个主要目标是通过提供一系列世界领先的培训计划，21个基础和临床研究人员队列，以提高在英国的医学真菌学能力。这将包括为13名学生定制的为期四年的MRes-PhD课程，该课程将提供其他任何地方都无法提供的广泛的跨学科培训; 3个早期职业奖学金，以促进杰出个人在医学真菌学方面的早期独立研究生涯; 5名优秀临床实习生奖学金，提供为期一年的重点学术培训和研究，并为随后的博士奖学金奠定基础应用程序;和10个为期八周的夏季奖学金，为四年级的医学生，以激发他们对医学真菌学的兴趣，并促进MCMM和该领域其他中心之间的联系。MCMM研究员，博士生和临床实习生将通过任命我们新研究主题内的联合监督项目来支持AFG的整合，并将大大提高我们对真菌疾病的理解。

The major contribution of fungi to the global burden of disease is not widely appreciated, despite the fact that fungi infect billions of people annually. While most infections are non-life threatening superficial infections, such as athlete's foot, millions of people contract invasive fungal diseases resulting in global mortality figures that rival those of tuberculosis or malaria. Despite their huge burden and high rates of death, fungal infections remain understudied compared with other infectious diseases and there is a pressing need for more research in this field. Experts in the field, including Aberdeen scientists, have identified three priorities that require urgent attention: (i) to improve our ability to detect fungal infections, (ii) to generate better antifungal drugs, and (iii) to enhance the understanding of fungal immunity and its exploitation to fight these diseases. The limited progress in tackling these challenges is due, in large part, to a lack of basic and clinical scientists working in this field in the UK and worldwide.The UK has a small but highly active community of scientists working on fungal diseases (medical mycologists), with the largest group based at The University of Aberdeen (the Aberdeen Fungal Group, AFG). The AFG, which consists of 11 independent research teams, totalling around eighty individuals, is internationally recognised as a leading group in this field. We aim to achieve maximal synergistic potential within the diverse expertise of the AFG by establishing a world-leading MRC Centre of excellence for research and training in Medical Mycology (MCMM). The MCMM will focus on performing cutting-edge interdisciplinary research and on training the next generation of scientists to increase research capacity in this neglected field in the UK. Establishing the MCMM will facilitate full integration of the complementary areas of expertise into six exciting research themes that address the key priorities of this field. Moreover, creation of the MCMM will lead to the recruitment of two academics whose expertise will add significant complementary value to the current group, and enable expansion of our research capacity into important new areas. One post will be in Bioinformatics, which will study and help process our massive biological datasets. This post will empower new technologies that will allow us to gain important insights into the mechanisms of fungal disease. The second post will be in immunology which, in addition to delivering cutting-edge science, will help promote the translation of our scientific discoveries into new diagnostic, preventative and therapeutic applications. The MCMM will also be used as a platform to raise awareness and influence policy regarding the management of fungal diseases within the broader academic community and the general public.A major objective of the MCMM is to increase capacity in medical mycology in the UK by delivering a cohort of 21 basic and clinical researchers through a range of world leading training programmes. This will include a bespoke four-year MRes-PhD programme for 13 students that will provide a broad interdisciplinary training that is not available anywhere else; 3 Early Career Fellowships to promote an early independent research career in medical mycology for outstanding individuals; 5 Fellowships for excellent clinical trainees to provide one year of focussed academic training and research and to establish a foundation for subsequent PhD fellowship applications; and 10 eight-week summer scholarships for fourth-year medical students to stimulate their interest in medical mycology, and to promote links between the MCMM and other centres in this field. The MCMM Fellows, PhD students and clinical trainees will underpin the integration of the AFG, through appointment to jointly-supervised projects within our new research themes, and will significantly advance our understanding of fungal disease.