Twenty-Five Years in Mucormycosis Research: A Themed Issue Honoring the Contributions of Professor Dimitrios P. Kontoyiannis
A special issue of Journal of Fungi (ISSN 2309-608X). This special issue belongs to the section "Fungal Pathogenesis and Disease Control".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024 | Viewed by 1364
Special Issue Editors
Interests: immune pathogenesis and immunotherapy of invasive mycoses (including mucormycosis); pathogenesis of inter-kingdom infections; immune biomarkers; preclinical infection models; epidemiological and clinical research in medical mycology
Interests: diagnostic biomarkers in invasive fungal infections; molecular methods for disease diagnosis; breath metabolomics; diagnosis and management of invasive mold infections; epidemiology of mucormycosis especially Covid-19 associated mucormycosis
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The Journal of Fungi is pleased to announce a Special Issue, “Twenty-five years of Mucormycosis Research: A Themed Special Issue Honoring the Contributions of Professor Dimitrios P. Kontoyiannis”.
Mucormycosis is among the most devastating opportunistic mold infections owing to its highly invasive nature, heterogenous and understudied pathogenesis in various host backgrounds (e.g., patients with uncontrolled diabetes mellitus, hematological malignancies, or COVID-19), and very high mortality in severely immunosuppressed patients. Reliable diagnostic biomarkers are lacking, as are novel antifungal agents with promising Mucorales activity. The increased awareness of the huge burden of mucormycosis and the critical unmet need for improved management strategies are highlighted by the inclusion of Mucorales in both the WHO fungal priority pathogens list and the NIAID emerging infectious diseases/pathogens priority list.
As a key opinion leader and driver of mucormycosis research, Dr. Dimitrios P. Kontoyiannis and his group have made sustained and impactful contributions to our current understanding of the epidemiology, risk factors, immunopathogenesis, diagnosis, and therapy of mucormycosis over the last 25 years. Such experimental and clinical research has pivotally contributed to individualized risk stratification, early and accurate diagnosis, preemptive therapy, and novel therapies that have improved the outcome of patients with mucormycosis. For his work, Dr. Kontoyiannis has received numerous prestigious awards from medical societies worldwide.
Dr. Dimitrios Kontoyiannis currently holds the Robert C. Hickey Endowed Chair in Clinical Care, is the Deputy Division Head of Internal Medicine and a Professor of Medicine in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and is the leader of MD Anderson’s Medical Mycology Research Center. He has authored over 670 peer-reviewed articles, editorials, and book chapters on mycology and infectious diseases, which have received over 65,500 citations, making him one of the top 1% most highly cited and influential researchers worldwide.
Perhaps Dr. Kontoyiannis’ greatest contribution in academic medicine stems from mentoring and shaping the career of several junior colleagues in clinical medicine and experimental research. Many of his former mentees have become emerging leaders in medical mycology and hold prestigious faculty positions at universities worldwide. As a testimony to Dr. Kontoyiannis’ outstanding commitment to mentoring, two of his current junior faculty mentees in clinical and experimental mycology have teamed up to edit this Special Issue.
As part of this Special Issue, we welcome both original research articles and review articles on mucormycosis research and management, including, but not limited to, epidemiology, genetics, pathogenesis, experimental models, diagnosis and biomarkers, antifungal therapy, immunotherapy, and other investigational therapeutic avenues.
Dr. Sebastian Wurster
Dr. Teny John
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Fungi is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- mucormycosis
- opportunistic mold infections
- epidemiology
- genetics
- diagnosis
