Trial lecture
The candidate will first give a trial lecture on the following topic: 'From Bench to Bedside: Organ-on-a-Chip Innovations in Antifungal Drug Development'
Time and place: Oct. 15, 2025 10:15 AM, Nucleus, Bikuben, Kristine Bonnevies hus
Research findings
Antifungal resistance is a global issue that presents significant challenges to medical advancements today. For vulnerable patient groups like cancer patients with poor immune systems, exposure to fungal pathogens can drive invasive fungal infections that are life-threatening and significantly undermine the success of life-saving cancer therapies. Unfortunately, these challenges are aggravated by the limited number of antifungal therapies that are clinically available and the emergence of multi-resistant fungal pathogens.
This thesis addresses the demands for new and alternative antifungal therapies that can overcome these challenges through different methods. By employing traditional drug screening against naturally sourced compounds, our study was able to identify a compound called NR-6226C, with potent antifungal activity against various patient-derived Candida strains. The studies further applied the efficacy of NR-6226C in combination with first- and second-line antifungal drugs and revealed that resistant patient-derived C. glabrata were able to be resensitized to antifungal drugs it originally exhibited resistance to. Finally, by applying genetic interaction screening in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, our study was able to identify genetic vulnerabilities in crucial compensatory pathways important to resistance in Candida and that can serve as candidates for molecular targets.
These findings and the application of different methods illustrate the necessary strategies that are required for addressing the multi-faceted challenges central to antifungal resistance today.
Adjudication committee
Researcher Carlos Rodriguez Vázquez de Aldana, Universidad de Salamanca
Assoc. Prof. Jørgen Vildershøj Bjørnholt, Oslo University Hospital
Researcher Erna Davydova, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo
Chair of defense
Prof. Dirk Linke, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo
Supervisors
Researcher Ignacio Garcia Llorente, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
Prof. Jorrit M. Enserink, University of Oslo & Oslo University Hospital
Prof. Pål Falnes, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo