Mold that is said to have existed on the earth for about 1 billion years.
Professor Koichi Makimura studies "pathogenic fungi" that cause health problems among molds called fungi in medical terms.
He is also the discoverer of a new type of fungus that is spreading worldwide.
Producing a photo book of mold taken with a digital microscope, etc.
As the world's top runner in fungal research, he faces mold day and night.

An important human partner
Mold that can cause illness

There are many fungi (molds, yeasts, mushrooms) on the earth. It is said that there are more than 100,000 known bacterial species alone, and millions of unknown bacterial species. Although some images of mold are not good for humans, they actually have a role as an important partner for the global environment and humans. It decomposes carcasses of animals and plants to maintain the global environment, keeps the soil where agricultural products grow healthy, and produces bread, miso, sake, and even medicines. All of this is due to the action of fungi.

Transition of deep fungal disease seen in people who underwent pathological autopsy in Japan

However, some of the fungi are harmful to humans. Diseases caused by fungi are called fungal diseases. Typical fungal diseases include athlete's foot caused by Trichophyton and mucosal candidiasis caused by Candida. Inhalation and infection of mold spores floating in the air often causes mold to propagate in the lungs, liver, and brain, resulting in deep fungal disease. Professor Koichi Makimura of the Graduate School of Graduate School of Medicine is studying molds that cause such human health disorders and "medical fungi," a group of microorganisms that have a morphology similar to molds.
"In recent years, the number of deaths from deep-seated fungal diseases that are life-threatening has increased. In Japan, many people have died from pulmonary fungal diseases caused by the fungus Aspergillus. The impact of the development of medical care is undeniable. While treatments such as anticancer drugs and immunosuppressive treatment have advanced to save many people, fungal diseases have increased as the number of immunosuppressed people increases. It was. "(Professor Makimura)

The world's first causative agent of pandemic fungal disease:
Discover Candida auris

Nowadays, there is a fungus called Candida auris, which has killed many people in the world and has become a big problem. Candida auris has produced a large number of infected patients in Asia, Europe, North America, etc., and many of them died of sepsis. Some types are highly pathogenic and resistant to antifungal drugs, causing a pandemic (global epidemic) for the first time as a fungal disease. Professor Makimura was the first in the world to discover and name this unknown bacterium, Candida auris.

In 2005, when he first saw Candida auris after being separated from the otorrhea of a 70-year-old woman, Professor Makimura's impression was that he had a sloppy "face" and did not seem to be pathogenic. was. The fungus has no face, but Professor Makimura calls the characteristic of the fungus a "face". In fact, the pathogenicity of Candida auris found in Japan and later in South Korea was low and did not pose a major problem. However, when Candida auris was isolated from blood in India and other countries in 2009, deaths due to sepsis occurred and the infection spread at once. Drug resistance began to be seen, and a pandemic occurred. Even now, it has not calmed down.
"The first Japanese Candida auris I found is low pathogenic and works well with medicines. However, in the United States, it has a high case fatality rate of 30-40% and causes sepsis with a high probability. The same strain. However, there are so many differences depending on the type, and it can be said that it is a very troublesome fungus. "(Professor Makimura)
Professor Makimura, who is also the first discoverer, has developed a genetic diagnostic method that can detect and diagnose Candida auris quickly and with high accuracy using an inexpensive machine. In January 2019, a demonstration test was conducted in the United States to stop the global epidemic and prepare for the domestic epidemic of concern in the future.

With the evolution of digital microscopes
To see the appearance of live fungi

Professor Makimura went to School of Medicine because he originally liked living things. "If the number of elderly people and cancer patients increases, fungal infections must become a problem," he decided to pursue fungal research. The prediction is correct, the number of patients with fungal diseases continues to increase, and the aforementioned problems of Candida auris expansion and resistant bacteria are occurring.
Under such circumstances, Professor Makimura is particularly focusing on "seeing live fungi." In the classification of fungi, gene identification using DNA sequencers and the like is progressing, and Professor Makimura has also gene-identified many fungal species and obtained patents for that purpose. However, he thinks that "something can be understood only by observing a living mold in a living state," and he makes full use of advanced digital microscope technology to make trial and error.

For future medical fungal research
What we can do now

As he says, "Everything where mold and humans are present is a research field," Professor Makimura has a wide range of research areas, and space environmental medicine focuses on fungal infections in outer space. This started with the ground research project of the former NASDA (currently JAXA), and the existence of fungi is investigated and controlled in the experimental building "Kibo" installed in the International Space Station (ISS), which is still Japan's first manned space program. Research is continuing for the purpose of doing so.