There are many reasons why antimicrobials are failing. The discovery of penicillin heralded a new age in treating infectious diseases. We finally had a means to cure infections specifically and successfully, and this created a whole slew of antimicrobial drugs, eradicating diseases that would otherwise almost certainly kill the patient. However, these days, infectious disease agents are finding ways to overcome and become resistant to the arsenal of antimicrobials that we have. Scientists are now scrambling not only to discover new antimicrobials, such as antibiotics, but also to discover the mechanisms by which bacteria, fungi and other infectious agents are…

Fungi are absolutely cooler than you might think. Think of fungi, and images of cheese gone bad, mushrooms and that annoyingly persistent infection between your toes are sure to pop into your head. But fungi are so much more than that. The Westerdijk Insitute.(Photo credit: Thijs Rooimans) I interviewed Professor Pedro Crous, the director of the Westerdijk Institute in Utrecht, The Netherlands, to find out more about fungal diversity, and why it is so important to keep doing research in this extremely exciting area. Pedro is also instrumental in pioneering a citizen science project, where school children are asked to…