Amelia Barber
Appointment
CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar 2025-2027
Fungal Kingdom: Threats & Opportunities
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About
Fungal infections are a significant and emerging threat to humans that kill more people each year than tuberculosis or malaria. Limited treatment options and rising antimicrobial resistance are exacerbating an already challenging problem. Research in the Barber Group tackles the growing threat of fungal infections by uncovering their ecological dynamics, genetic diversity, and resistance mechanisms, paving the way for improved disease outcomes. One line of research is elucidating the environmental ecology of human fungal pathogens and how it shapes their virulence through environmental sampling, lab experiments, and big data approaches. A second major topic in my group is deciphering the substantial genomic and phenotypic heterogeneity within fungal pathogens, revealing novel disease mechanisms. Ultimately, this will illuminate how pathogens emerge in their natural habitats and enable the development of novel therapies to these devastating diseases.
Awards
- Publication prize, German-speaking Mycological Society (DMykG), 2022
- Medac Research Prize, 2021
- European Confederation of Medical Mycology Young Investigator Award, 2017
- ASM Richard and Mary Finkelstein Travel Award, 2015
Relevant Publications
- Brassington P, Klefisch F-R, Graf B, Pfüller R, Kurzai O, Walther G, Barber AE. (2025). Genomic reconstruction of an azole-resistant Candida parapsilosis outbreak and the creation of a multilocus sequence typing scheme. The Lancet Microbe, 6(1):100949. DOI: 10.1016/j.lanmic.2024.07.012
- Loos D, Pereira A, Dutilh BE, Barber AE, Panagiotou G. (2024). A global survey of host, aquatic, and soil microbiomes reveals shared abundance and genomic features between bacterial and fungal generalists. Cell Reports, 43(4):114046. DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.114046.
- Barber AE, Sae-Ong T, Kang K, Seelbinder B, Li J, Walther G, Panagiotou G, Kurzai O. (2021). Aspergillus fumigatus pan-genome analysis identifies genetic variants associated with human infection. Nature Microbiology, 6(12):1526-1536. DOI: 10.1038/s41564-021-00993-x.