News Archive
Recent Educational Events in ChinaMedical Mycology Course in West China
ANNOUNCEMENT: It is with sadness that we announce the death of Dr John P. Utz who died on April 4 in Naples, Florida, USA.
Meeting report: 14th International Symposium on Infections In the Immunocompromised Host
Crans-Montana, Switzerland
July 2-5, 2006
Meeting report: ECCMID 2006
ANNOUNCEMENT: ISHAM Working Group on Black Yeasts
SYMPOSIUM REPORT: Practice Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Fungal Infection, Chandigarh, India
NEWS FROM CHINA
OBITUARY: GEORGE S. KOBAYASHI
The field of mycology and the mycologists who populate it lost one of its most talented and illustrious members this year when George S. Kobayashi died after a short illness on April 19, 2005. George was a unique individual who was an eminent and accomplished scientist and a fun loving character who always entertained and enlightened everyone around him. He was born in the Bay Area of California where his father owned a small business. His life changed abruptly after the attack on Pearl Harbor when he and his family were interned with thousands of other Japanese Americans in relocation camps for the duration of the Second World War. Despite the hardships in the camp, George excelled academically and also developed and maintained a sense of humor, which became one of his trademarks in later life. After the war and a stint in the army, George received his degree in Food Science from the University of California, Berkeley. After an interval during which he met and married his wife Mari, George received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from Tulane University. He was recruited to Washington University in 1963 and remained on the faculty until his retirement in 1999 as a Professor of Medicine and Molecular Microbiology and Associate Director of the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory of Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
During his career at Washington University, George was truly a "triple threat". He was an outstanding teacher and mentor, an excellent investigator and an expert clinical mycologist who always had the final word in identifying pathogenic fungi isolated from clinical specimens. Under his leadership, Washington University became a center for training medical mycologists and for research in pathogenic fungi. George and his collaborators studied cellular differentiation in the pathogenic fungus Histoplasma capsulatum. He had more than 175 publications and was a popular visiting professor and lecturer. He served in various capacities in the American Society for Microbiology. He was a founding member and past president of the Mycological Society of America. He also served as a member of research study sections for the National Institutes of Health and was on advisory committees for the Food and Drug Administration and the American Type Culture Collection.
George had an outstanding career as a medical mycologist and received many honors for his accomplishments. I believe among his most important contributions were his efforts to help make medical mycology an important focus for government funding and to demonstrate that basic questions in molecular biology could be studied using pathogenic fungi. Many medical mycologists who are presently receiving NIH support for their work on pathogenic fungi are benefited by George's efforts.
Everyone who knew George respected him for his science and also loved him for his personality. There are a thousand funny stories about George and knowing him and working with him for 35 years, I know and believe them all. He was a scholar and a unique character, who also was a loving, devoted husband, father and grandfather. His wife Mari, his four children Pat, Dale, Kimi and Scott, and his grandchildren all miss him terribly and so do the medical mycologists and all who knew him personally and professionally.
Gerald Medoff
The Donald L. Greer and Paul H. Jacobs Medical Mycology Resources Library, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
The Department of Dermatology at LSUHSC, New Orleans, USA is proud to accept the generous gift of the personal library of books and teaching materials in the field of medical mycology from Dr. Donald L. Greer, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, LSU Health Sciences Center, and Dr. Paul H. Jacobs, M.D., Professor Emeritus, Stanford University.
The personal library of Dr. Jacobs was granted through his will to Dr. Greer. Dr. Greer retired as Professor from LSUHSC and as Director of the TB/Mycology Clinical Laboraory at Charity Hospital in 2001. The combined teaching material represents over 75 years of references, books, clinical images and teaching manuals in the area of clinical medical mycology.
This library wil be one of the few at the university level dedicated exclusively to the study of clinical medical mycology with strong emphasis in dermatomycology. Drs. Greer and Jacobs hope that this resource will be used wisely and well for the advancement of knowledge in the study of fungi which they loved so well.
The Pan-African Medical Mycology Society founded
The Pan-African Medical Mycology Society (PAMMS) was founded on 25 January 2005 during a small but very successful meeting, entitled, Medical Mycology: The African Perspective, that was held in Hartenbos, South Africa. The meeting was held under the auspices of the International Society for Human and Animal Mycology (ISHAM) and the European Confederation of Medical Mycology (ECMM). The PAMMS aims to stimulate contacts between clinicians and researchers with a particular interest in medical mycology from the African continent and abroad. Diverse topics in medical mycology were presented during the meeting, ranging from yeast infections caused by Candida and Cryptococcus, to mycetoma, subcutaneous and systemic infections, and diseases caused by lesser-known fungi. This meeting indicated that Africa has much to offer in medical mycology, both from a clinical and a scientific point of view. Presenters were sponsored ISHAM, ECMM, and by the newly initiated Africa Fund for Fungal Biodiversity and Mycotic Infections.
Health problems in Africa are still enormous and in many parts of the continent geographically restricted and unique. In contrast to the industrial world, where prevalent and emerging disease entities are primarily linked with immunosuppression in leukemia patients or transplant recipients, African mycoses occur in healthy individuals or are associated with HIV/AIDS. The impact of cryptococcosis as an AIDS-defining disease in Southern Africa is particularly dramatic and shows high morbidity and mortality rates in spite of antifungal prophylaxis in trial subjects. The incidence of AIDS is as high as 16% of the total population, while less than 1% of AIDS patients receive antiretroviral therapy in this area. Concerted action is therefore needed to establish the incidences of fungal diseases and to decrease morbidity and mortality of major mycoses in Africa. Much progress has been made with molecular diagnostics, animal models and therapy of fungal mycetoma, particularly in areas such as the Sudan where the disease still has a high incidence. An impressive demonstration of the disease 'Noma', occurring among the poor in Sahel Africa, showed an extremely mutilating disorder of which the aetiological agent is still unknown.
Scientifically, the continent provides very interesting disease models and materials for epidemiology and population genetics. An African clade that stands out as a separate entity is known within Candida albicans, with clinical predilection differing from that of other clades, is being explored. Systemic infections by melanized fungi occur throughout the continent. Much progress has been made with sporotrichosis and Sporothrix schenckii, and presentations given at the Congress of the Southern African Society for Plant Pathology (SASPP), which was held concurrently in Hartenbos, presented much new information. Other presentations were concerned with dermatophytes, hyaline fungi, and Histoplasma.
The Abstracts of oral presentations and posters of the Hartenbos symposium can be viewed at www.cbs.knaw.nl, and some hard copies of the proceedings still can be obtained for free at info@cbs.knaw.nl.
The inaugural meeting of the PAMMS, the Pan-African Medical Mycology Society, of which mycologists of the African continent will automatically be assumed to be a member, followed the scientific symposium. A steering committee, consisting of Hester Vismer (Tygerberg, South Africa), Ifeoma Enweani (Ekpoma, Nigeria) and El Sheikh Mahgoub (Khartoum, Sudan), will look after PAMMS during its first few years. Membership of the PAMMS is free, as the Africa Fund for Fungal Biodiversity and Mycotic Infections, initiated by Sybren de Hoog and Jacques Meis, will cover the initial costs of the Society. Please apply for membership with Hester Vismer (hester.vismer@mrc.ac.za). The Africa Fund for Fungal Biodiversity and Mycotic Infections has limited resources for training of African students in Europe; applications may be sent to de.hoog@cbs.knaw.nl. A second meeting of PAMMS is scheduled for the year 2007 in South Africa.
Sybren de Hoog, Hester Vismer
A new mycolological web site has been launched: Medical Mycology:
Educational Programs for Asia, presented by Professors Glen S Bulmer and Li Ruo Yu. See more at: www.medicalmycology-asia.com
