Medical Research Council and University of Exeter

Our Partnerships

Charity Partnerships

We currently collaborate with, or are funded by, multiple charities that support research into various aspects of medical mycology.

Noah’s Pink Balloon is a newly established charity founded in memory of Noah, a young boy who had a rare form of leukaemia, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) Philadelphia Chromosome positive. He unfortunately passed away from mucormycosis, a rare fungal infection. Mucormycosis is very difficult to diagnose and difficult to treat. The fatality rate of mucormycosis is currently 80%, so research into early diagnosis and better treatment is vital.

Noah’s Pink Balloon is funding a Clinical Fellowship at the CMM to research mucormycosis to prevent similar deaths in the future.

 

We are one of the partners in the UK CF Trust funded Strategic Research Centre TriFIC, which stands for ‘Targeting Immunotherapy for fungal infections in Cystic Fibrosis’.

Aspergillus fumigatus is a fungus found in half of people with cystic fibrosis. The presence of Aspergillus in the airways can lead to further issues, such as bronchitis (a severe airway infection) and airway allergies to Aspergillus. This can increase the infection and inflammation in the lung, diminish the lung function, and some fungal infections can prevent patients being eligible for life-saving lung transplants. The antifungal medicines normally used to treat these infections aren’t guaranteed to be effective and can be toxic. TriFIC has been set up to investigate medicines known as immunotherapies as an alternative treatment option.