Abstract FuGACI

Emerging fungal pathogens within the Candida genus, including C. albicans, C. parapsilosis and C. auris, represent a growing public health concern on a global scale, and resistance to key antifungal drugs, particularly azoles and echinocandins, is on the rise. Epidemiological shifts, including range expansion and increased virulence or resistance, are being driven by climate change, global trade and human movement, and our ability to mitigate this increased risk to public health is limited by poor surveillance. The implementation and utility of genomics in Candida epidemiology significantly lags behind its use for bacterial pathogens, and there is little data on the transmission dynamics of these species between clinical and non-clinical (‘One-Health’) environments. Moreover, it is not known how competitive ecological interactions with co-colonising bacterial species impact on the survival and spread of fungi. This proposal brings together expertise in bacterial and fungal epidemiology, genomics, bioinformatics and microbiome ecology. We will combine existing global genomics datasets from clinical and wastewater settings, with novel genome and metagenome data from hospitals in Italy, Netherlands and Australia, and wastewater data from the UK. We will examine transmission dynamics and inter-species co-occurrence by implementing and optimising state-of-the-art bioinformatics analyses developed originally by project partners for bacterial pathogens. This will provide critical data on intra-species diversity and will help to identify potential intervention points.