Ecology, evolution and the environment

Matt Fisher in the School of Public Health has an established track record in the ecology and epidemiology of fungal pathogens of amphibians and humans, in particular Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in frogs and salamanders, as well as Cryptococcus neoformans and Aspergillus fumigatus in humans.

Martin Bidartondo in Life Sciences, who is based at Kew and Silwood Park, works on the ecology and evolution of mycorrhizas, one of the dominant symbioses of terrestrial ecosystems, with a focus on forests, heathlands and early terrestrial ecosystems. Claire Stanley in the Department of Bioengineering is developing novel microfluidic technologies to investigate interactions between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and “hyphosphere” bacteria at the cellular level, and Ioly Kotta-Loizou in Life Sciences studies mycovirus infections of fungi such as Aspergillus fumigatus.

There are further strengths in the ecology of polymicrobial interactions within the lung in NHLI and Infectious Diseases where Sanjay Chotirmal, Bill Cookson, and Miriam Moffat work on the mycobiome and microbiome, and Darius Armstrong-James and Davies investigate specific fungal interactions with bacteria and mycobacteria.