Fungal pathogens infect over 1 billion human patients and cause over 1.6 million fatalities annually.

Due to the combination of limited effective drugs, the rise in at-risk patient populations, and the emergence of multi-drug resistant strains, proper treatment of fungal infections has become a growing health concern.  

The Shlezinger lab uses a multidisciplinary approach to address two broad questions: how do fungi overcome immune surveillance and cause infectious diseases and, conversely, how the host immune response can protect against fungal pathogens. To decode these intricate interactions, we generate functional reporters of fungal physiology and apply cross-disciplinary techniques to monitor the outcome of individual fungal cell-host encounters within the complexities of an in vivo environment.

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