Federal Grant Award Summary

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) awarded a $713,383 Project Grant to the Regents of the University of Minnesota on July 10, 2026, under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) to support research through June 30, 2031. The research focuses on investigating the mechanisms and dynamics of genome plasticity in Candida species, particularly in the context of antifungal drug resistance. The project will employ single-cell and population-level genomic approaches, experimental evolution methodologies, and simulation-based inference techniques to quantify the frequency and dynamics of genomic changes during adaptive evolution in response to antifungal drugs and physiologically relevant stress conditions.

The deliverables include scientific findings on the molecular mechanisms driving genome plasticity in Candida albicans, Candida glabrata, and Candida auris; quantitative assessments of mutation rates and fitness effects associated with diverse genomic variation types such as aneuploidy and DNA copy number variations; and empirical data evaluating the contexts in which aneuploidy provides adaptive benefits and impacts the rate of environmental adaptation. This research addresses the critical public health threat posed by antifungal-resistant Candida species, which cause invasive infections with mortality rates exceeding 40%, and will advance understanding of how different mutation types influence evolutionary dynamics in fungal pathogens.