Table 1 Summary of the EUROFUNG’s Think Tank
Research opportunities | Community resources required |
|---|---|
Understanding basic principles underlying fungal growth, development and gene expression | Investment in a well-structured dedicated science base including European and international initiatives (e.g. COST actions) to optimise knowledge exchange and efficient multidisciplinary activities |
Development of publicly available gene deletion and overexpression mutant libraries | Sustainable investment in appropriate strain culture collections |
Development of high-throughput technologies for cloning, mining and screening of fungal strains | Combined activity between technology developers and experts in fungal science to modify technologies according to specific challenges of filamentous fungi |
Development of genome editing and synthetic biology tools for high-throughput manipulation and (re)design of fungal genomes | Dedicated funding for methods and tool development regarding generic synthetic parts and easily adaptable molecular components for integration into experimental pipelines for filamentous fungi |
Development of publicly available, high-quality manually curated omics databases where fungal genomes and omics-studies can be shared | Continuous and suitable investment in appropriate bioinformatics resources, structures and staff training |
Development of strains with improved protein expression and secretion rates | Â |
Development of strains with improved macroscopic morphologies in submerged cultures | Â |
Development of optimal/minimal genomes lacking unwanted mycotoxin genes | Â |
Understanding fungal pathogenesis in different hosts and across kingdoms including the development of infection models | Dedicated research activities including cross sector forums to investigate human, animal and plant pathogens and disease ecology. Direct links to clinical and agricultural global science activities and policy makers (WHO, FAO, EC) |
Selection of appropriate targets for antifungals and establishment of drug development strategies | Dedicated funding for screening programmes to identify new modes of action against key targets and translation into well-financed early stage development pipelines |