ORONO (AP) — A North Carolina research foundation is awarding a University of Maine professor $500,000 to study how common pathogens become potentially deadly.
The university said Wednesday that the Burroughs Wellcome Fund is awarding Robert Wheeler the five-year grant. Wheeler is an assistant professor of microbiology at the university.
He will study how Candida albicans, the most common human fungal pathogen, transforms into a potentially fatal fungus in the vital organs of people with compromised immune systems. Wheeler said in a statement that the goal of his work will be to improve diagnosis and therapy of fungal infection.
The university described Candida albicans as the leading cause of hospitalacquired infection and the cause of several thousand annual deaths in the United States.
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