Fundamental Insights and Therapeutic Potential: Advances in Understanding the Host-Fungus Interaction

Fungal diseases remain a growing threat to the health of numerous species from amphibians to mammals. In humans, they cause substantial morbidity and mortality in otherwise healthy or immunocompromised individuals. Fungi threaten the well-being of humans from endogenous or environmental sources. Appropriate orchestration of the immune response is requisite for successful resolution of infection. How this choreography is achieved remains enigmatic. Impaired or exuberant immune responses can thwart effective eradication. Major scientific achievements have catapulted the field to the forefront of microbial immunology. An explosion of insights have uncovered novel aspects regarding the function of components of innate and adaptive immunity. These revealing studies have educated us about effector mechanisms that lead to fungal killing. Conversely, these studies also have highlighted the clever ways in which fungi evade recognition and elimination. Recent work detailing the influence of host cell metabolism, intracellular trafficking, nutrition, epithelial cell function, and the microbiota provides new insights into the host-pathogen interaction and immune control of infection. These are but a few of the examples that illustrate the tremendous progress in the field. Such discoveries provide a strong foundation for deciphering the elements that foster both resistance and susceptibility to infection. Moreover, understanding the immunological basis of the successful host response without causing excessive damage serves as a platform to develop new immunotherapeutic strategies and vaccines to treat or prevent infection. This conference will bring together the world's leading investigators who are exploring antifungal immunity in a setting conducive for exchange of ideas leading to new collaborations. This meeting will underscore the latest advances in the field and the most nettlesome scientific issues that require attention.