IOI Launches New Antifungal Drug Discovery Programme

The Ineos Oxford Institute for antimicrobial research (IOI) has established a new antifungal drug discovery programme to address the growing global threat of fungal infections and antifungal resistance.

Fungi can cause serious infections in the lungs, brain, bloodstream and skin, affecting billions of people worldwide. Despite this health threat, treatment options remain limited, with only four major classes of antifungal drugs currently in clinical use. Antifungal resistance, where fungi develop the ability to survive treatment, is increasing globally and is estimated to contribute to more than 3.8 million deaths each year.

Developing new antifungal therapies is particularly challenging because fungal cells are biologically similar to human cells. This makes it harder for scientists to develop drugs that target the fungus without harming the patient, and limits the number of safe and effective drug targets.

IOI’s new antifungal drug programme will combine microbial ecology, synthetic biology and medicinal chemistry to uncover new antifungal agents and develop next-generation antifungal therapies that are more resilient to resistance. It will focus on identifying previously unrecognised vulnerabilities in fungal cells, uncovering new antifungal molecules, targeting key fungal systems, improving existing drug candidates, and developing new approaches to understand and overcome resistance.

The programme will be led by Dr Xuefei (Fei) Chen, who was previously based at McMaster University in Canada, where she identified new antifungal strategies that target fundamental aspects of fungal cell biology that underpin resistance. Her recent work showed that disrupting membrane organisation through inhibition of the flippase complex can restore the activity of existing antifungal drugs against resistant pathogens, revealing a previously unrecognised vulnerability in fungal cells.

Her research team has also discovered novel antifungal compounds, including coniotins, which shows activity against multidrug-resistant pathogens such as Candida auris, while exhibiting low toxicity to human cells.

Fungal resistance is limiting treatment options for humans and affecting animals and food crops, yet it remains one of the least studied areas of antimicrobial resistance research. I am excited to join the Ineos Oxford Institute for antimicrobial research, and work collaboratively with a world-class team of chemists, microbiologists and clinicians to advance the development of new antifungal drugs - Dr Xuefei (Fei) Chen, Antifungal Drug Discovery Lead, Ineos Oxford Institute for antimicrobial research

We need to treat infectious fungi with the same urgency as disease causing bacteria. The limited number of antifungal drugs that currently exist are starting to fail, and we need to build capacity in fungal research.

Dr Xuefei Chen brings outstanding expertise across the full antifungal discovery pipeline from identifying new compounds to understanding their mechanisms and validating them in vivo. She has already discovered a brand new antifungal molecule and we look forward to supporting her research here at the IOI. - Prof Kevin Pethe, Director, Ineos Oxford Institute for antimicrobial research

IOI’s antifungal programme will establish a pipeline for discovering, optimising and advancing new antifungal treatments towards clinical use. With the launch of its antifungal programme, IOI is expanding its efforts to address the full spectrum of drug-resistant infections and accelerate the development of urgently needed therapies.

Find out more about IOI’s antifungal programme here: Antifungal Drug Discovery | Ineos Oxford Institute (https://www.ineosoxford.ox.ac.uk/antifungal-drug-discovery)