UF researchers get grant to find new treatment for a deadly common fungal infection.

UF Health researchers plan to use computer algorithms to find a new, better individualized treatment for a common, invasive fungal infection.

The National Institutes of Health granted them $2.7 million for the project. The infection, aspergillosis, is caused by the aspergillus fungus, which is a fungus in the form of mold spores that can live indoors or outdoors and is inhaled frequently, said Dr. Borna Mehrad, one of the head researchers.

"The most severe illness is in people with a very weakened immune system,” Mehrad said.

Currently, the infection is treated with antifungal antibiotics, but problems occur because the infection has developed a resistance, Mehrad said. It’s one of the most common fungal infections and has a high mortality rate.

The symptoms of aspergillosis are similar to pneumonia, Mehrad said.

The new computer algorithm will try to model the infection in combination with testing done on mice, Mehrad said. Mice will be given the infection, and then collaborators at University of Connecticut will put the data from them into the algorithm.

The system will develop a hypothesis that will help determine a treatment and then test that on the mice, Mehrad said.

At the University of Connecticut, professor Reinhard Laubenbacher, director of the Center for Quantitative Medicine, said he hopes this will allow doctors to give customized treatments.

“This is an incredibly exciting time in collecting data, both at the molecular level and the patient level,” Laubenbacher said.