The Imperial Fungal Science Network is a hub for the mycology community, providing a leadership, advocacy and communications platform for mycologists and a developmental framework for future leaders in fungal research.听听We welcome you to the Imperial Fungal Science Network 鈥 Seminar Series 2026 for a seminar programme highlighting the work of Early Career Researchers.
Seminar | ECR Talks | 12:00鈥 13:00 | Thursday 19th February
馃搷G47, Flowers Building, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ 听find us at Map/3A
- In-person听&听online (via Teams, click 鈥楲ivestream鈥 button on LHS)
- No registration required
- This is a hybrid event to ensure that our non-London members/audience can join for the talks remotely; if you are joining us via the Teams link, please be aware that your email contact may show up to other meeting attendees, please join using an organisation email contact where possible, thanks.
Schedule
11:30
Arrivals & refreshments
11:55
Teams link opens for online attendees
12:00-12:05
Introductions & Network overview (Prof. Darius Armstrong-James)
12:05-13.05
SPEAKER PROGRAMME:
Biotechnology and engineering
(Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein and Microbial Food Hub, Department of Bioengineering, 天美传媒)
Metabolic engineering of Yarrowia lipolytica for the bioproduction of food-system relevant compounds
The global food system struggles to meet rising demand while protecting human and planetary health.听 Microbial biomanufacturing offers a resilient alternative to costly, low-yield plant extraction.听 This talk presents two strategies expanding the metabolic capabilities of Yarrowia lipolytica, specifically engineering the yeast to produce a range of natural food colourants, and developing a co-culture system for ginger essential oil bioproduction, a promising biocontrol alternative to synthetic agrochemicals.
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Pathogenesis of fungal diseases
Xinxin Shou (Armstrong-James Lab, Department of Infectious Disease, 天美传媒)
Pathobiology of fungal histamine tolerance in allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis听听
Aspergillus fumigatus听is a filamentous fungus which can causes types of aspergilloses. During allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA), mast cell histamine release in the airways potentially contributes to local inflammation. We observe that clinical isolates from ABPA patients exhibit enhanced growth in histamine-containing medium compared to non-allergic isolates. Transcriptomic analysis further revealed that histamine exposure resulted in upregulation of genes encoding copper amine oxidases in A. fumigatus, suggesting a mechanism for increased histamine tolerance in clinical strains. Here I will present further studies aimed at dissecting mechanisms of histamine tolerance and relevance to survival in vivo and in vitro in allergic immune environments.听
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Ecology, evolution and the environment
听(Bell Lab, Department of Life Sciences, Silwood Park, 天美传媒)
Culture collection coverage gaps in fungi听鈥斕齛nd what community cryopreservation can do about them听
Fungal biobanks mainly consist of pure 鈥榓xenic鈥 cultures, but many fungi are recalcitrant to conventional isolation approaches. Analysis of global culture collection holdings reveals systematic gaps 鈥 particularly among symbiont-dependent and slow-growing taxa 鈥 that 鈥榩ure鈥 culture approaches fundamentally cannot close. I will present experimental evidence showing that complex microbial communities can be cryopreserved while retaining fungal viability, suggesting that community context may itself protect organisms that have, to date, resisted all isolation attempts.
鈥
13:05
Close
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Researchers interested in the Network can find more information and join the Network / Follow us 听 (BlueSky; X/Twitter) 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听听