Warren symposium follows legacy of geneticist giant

If we want to understand how the brain creates memories, and how genetic disorders distort the brain’s machinery, then the fragile X gene is an ideal place to start. That’s why the Stephen T. Warren Memorial Symposium, taking place November 28-29 at Emory, will be a significant event for those interested in neuroscience and genetics. Stephen T. Warren, 1953-2021 Warren, the founding chair of Emory’s Department of Human Genetics, led an international team that discovered Read more

Mutations in V-ATPase proton pump implicated in epilepsy syndrome

Why and how disrupting V-ATPase function leads to epilepsy, researchers are just starting to figure Read more

Tracing the start of COVID-19 in GA

At a time when COVID-19 appears to be receding in much of Georgia, it’s worth revisiting the start of the pandemic in early 2020. Emory virologist Anne Piantadosi and colleagues have a paper in Viral Evolution on the earliest SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequences detected in Georgia. Analyzing relationships between those virus sequences and samples from other states and countries can give us an idea about where the first COVID-19 infections in Georgia came from. We can draw Read more
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Candida auris

Combo approach vs drug-resistant fungus

Before 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, concern among infectious disease specialists was rising about Candida auris, an emerging fungal pathogen that is often drug-resistant and difficult to eradicate from hospitals.

CDC image of Candida auris

Many people know Candida can cause mouth or vaginal infections and diaper rashes. According to the CDC, Candida also can cause invasive infections in the bloodstream, particularly in hospital or nursing home patients with weakened immune systems. About 30 percent of patients with an invasive Candida infection die – and C. auris is just one particularly hardy variety.

Emory Antibiotic Resistance Center director David Weiss and colleagues have identified a combination of existing antifungal drugs (micafungin and amphotericin B) with enhanced activity against C. auris when used together. The results – in vitro only, so far — were published in a letter to The Lancet Microbe. Postdoctoral fellow Siddharth Jaggavarapu was the first author. Weiss reports his team continues to investigate combination approaches against C. auris.

Posted on December 18, 2020 by Quinn Eastman in Uncategorized Leave a comment