Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGBOptimized Diagnostics for Improved Treatment Stratification in Invasive Fungal Diseases
The EU-funded collaborative project FUNGITECT focuses on new methodologies for the diagnosis of invasive fungal diseases (IFD). In cooperation with the St. Anna pediatric clinic in Vienna, the first step consists of establishing different assays for the detection of pathogens in blood, targeting fungal DNA-, RNA- and protein motifs, as well as the enzymatic activity of fungal pathogens. FUNGITECT will subsequently focus on the development, validation and marketing of a specific set of novel molecular diagnostic tests for IFD.
In order to obtain diagnostic DNA and RNA biomarkers, FUNGITECT will employ next-generation sequencing technologies. The Functional Genomics group works on integrating high-throughput sequencing into the diagnostics of fungal pathogens in a patient’s blood sample.
