airmid healthgroup was delighted to attend the Irish Fungal Meeting which was held in NUI Maynooth on the 20th and 21st of June 2013. At the conference, an impressive collection of national and international delegates from academia and industry presented research in the fast developing area of fungal biology.
The morning topics included developing an understanding of oxidative stress responses in clinically relevant Candida species and the relationship between metabolite production and self detoxification. This was followed by insights into the ability of Aspergillus fumigatus to sequester iron and the development of mass spectrometry in the identification of different fungal species. The afternoon was made up of a clinically specific section covering the diagnosis and immunological reactions of patients to fungal infections, followed by a presentation of epidemiological and individual case studies of fungal infection.
Day two discussed the battle against fungicide resistance in agriculture and the use of fungi in biotechnological applications such as animal feed supplementation, biocatalyst production and bioethanol production.
In addition to research presented in the oral presentations there were also posters profiling studies in the application of molecular biology, gene disruption, mycotoxin production as well as proteomic, spectroscopic and chromatographic analysis.
The increased attendance at this event in recent years is testament to the great strides made by the fungal research community in Ireland and their collaborations with researchers from abroad.
Related Links: Irish Fungal Society
