International consortium led by the University of Szeged awarded a 6.8 million euro grant to conduct research on invasive fungal infections

It is a significant achievement that an international consortium led by the University of Szeged (CLEVER: Consortium Linking Extracellular Vesicle Efforts in Research on Invasive Fungal Infections) has been awarded a grant through the Novo Nordisk Foundation’s prestigious Challenge Program. The researchers were awarded 6.8 million euros to to tackle the growing global health threat of invasive fungal diseases.

The Novo Nordisk Foundation is one of the world’s leading organizations supporting basic research. Its programs seek scientific solutions to numerous global challenges, ranging from health research to climate change and artificial intelligence to the functioning of biological systems.

The consortium led by the University of Szeged was organized by Professor Attila Gácser, head of the University of Szeged’s Institute of Biology and director of the Host-Pathogen Interaction Center. Participants in this international collaboration include, among others, Norbert Pardi, who began his career at the University of Szeged and now has his own laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania; Professor Marcio Rodrigues, a researcher at the Carlos Chagas Institute, part of the Fiocruz network in Brazil; and experts in infectious diseases from the University of Aarhus in Denmark. Also joining the collaborative effort are internationally recognized experts in the field of extracellular vesicle (EV) research, including, from Hungary, Professor Edit Buzás (Semmelweis University, Budapest) and the research group led by Professor Krisztina Buzás, head of the Department of Immunology at SZTE, as well as staff members from the ELI ALPS Laser Research Institute in Szeged. Katalin Karikó, the Nobel Prize-winning professor at the University of Szeged, has agreed to serve as chair of the project’s scientific advisory board.

The central theme of the project is the study of so-called extracellular vesicles. These tiny vesicles, released by cells and bounded by a lipid membrane, play a fundamental role in intercellular communication. While research on these vesicles has already led to numerous diagnostic and therapeutic applications in mammals, we still know very little about the function of extracellular vesicles produced by fungi. The consortium aims to understand exactly how these fungal EVs carry virulence factors, evade host immune defenses, and modulate human immune responses. Studying these vesicles provides a unique opportunity to design vaccines and disrupt the fungus's survival mechanisms.

The international research team aims to fundamentally transform this field of science by standardizing research methods. To this end, they are developing the first comprehensive “fungal extracellular vesicle atlas,” which describes the characteristics of the three most important groups of human pathogenic fungi—the genera Candida, Aspergillus, and Cryptococcus—within a unified system.

The Novo Nordisk Foundation’s decision not only confirms the international recognition of the researchers in Szeged but also reinforces the University of Szeged’s position at the forefront of life sciences research in Europe.