ISHAM working group on Aspergillus terreus

Convenor
S. Arun Balajee,
Mycotic Diseases Branch, Centers for Disease Control, 1600 Clifton Road, Atlanta, Georgia – 30333.
404 639 3337. Email Fir3@cdc.gov

The Aspergillus terreus working group will sustain a communication network through which the members can exchange research ideas and thoughts and will function as a portal for the group to meet and exchange research data.

Objectives
1. Explore the genetic diversity and population dynamics of A. terreus. Under this aim, we propose to: a) Develop a comprehensive culture repository comprising of both clinical and environmental isolates of A. terreus. b) Design a multilocus sequence typing scheme (MLST) for species identification in Section Terrei. c) Using the repository and the MLST scheme, generate data on the genetic diversity and population dynamics of A. terreus. d) Recognize and validly publish new species
2. Understand the epidemiology of A. terreus by a) Developing a microsatellite marker panel for strain discrimination and test this panel on several environmental and clinical isolates of A. terreus. b) Elucidating the clinical epidemiology of A. terreus
3. Investigate amphotericin B ‘resistance’ in A. terreus by using fluorochrome based assays
4. Study virulence potential of A. terreus in a mini-host model of infection.

Anybody can become a member of this working group by sending an email to the convenor at fir3@cdc.gov.

Current Members

1. S. Arun Balajee, Convenor
Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, USA. fir3@cdc.gov
2. John Baddley - University of Birmingham, Alabama, USA
jbaddley@uab.edu
3. Jan Dijksterhuis - Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures, Utrecht, The Netherlands. dijksterhuis@cbs.knaw.nl
4. Cornelia Lass-Flörl - Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria
Cornelia.Lass-Floerl@i-med.ac.at
5. Jens Christian Frisvad - jcf@biocentrum.dtu.dk
Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
6. Rob Samson - ras@cbs.knaw.nl
Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
7. Janos Varga - jvarga@cbs.knaw.nl
Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
8. Corné Klaassen - c.klaassen@cwz.nl
Canisius Wilhelmina Hospital, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
9. Dimitrios P Kontoyiannis - dkontoyi@mdanderson.org
MD Anderson Cancer Center, Texas, USA
10. Stephen W. Peterson - peterssw@ncaur.usda.gov
National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research US Department of Agriculture, 1815 N. University St. Peoria, IL 61604