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UNL research article earns 'excellent' rating Faculty of 1000 website "It's very exciting," said Ken Nickerson, professor of biological sciences, who led this research along with Raluca Dumitru, his graduate student. "This is probably the most important work of my career." The Faculty of 1000, started in 2001, is an online research tool that helps busy scientists identify the most important journal articles to read. More than 2,000 leading researchers worldwide recommend and rank the most influential scientific papers in their fields. Each paper is then scored based on those rankings and the number of faculty that recommended it. The Faculty of 1000 is published by Biology Reports Ltd. The UNL researchers showed for the first time that the fungal pathogen Candida albicans mates at human body temperature, or 98.6° F, under anaerobic (oxygen-free) conditions, such as those found in the gastrointestinal tract. It had long been thought Candida could not mate at temperatures above 85° F, but the fungus had only been studied in conditions where oxygen was present. The paper was published in the journal Eukaryotic Cells in March. Candida, the most important pathogenic fungus in humans, is found in about 60 percent of people and can cause problems such as genital yeast infections and thrush. Healthy people normally resist the fungus, but it's a common cause of death in those with weakened immune systems, such as people with AIDS. About $1 billion is spent annually in the United States to fight such infections. Researchers plan to continue studying the Candida life cycle under anaerobic conditions. This work may one day lead to better anti-fungal drugs. Other UNL authors are: Dhammika Navarathna, veterinary and biomedical sciences; Camile Semighini, Plant Science Research Initiative; Christian Elowsky, Center for Biotechnology; Razvan Dumitru, biochemistry; and Audrey Atkin, biological sciences. They collaborated with two Canadian researchers.    | |
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