Jason Stajich

Frogs kick back against lethal fungus

tomwt — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 16:09:48 +0000

Frogs kick back against lethal fungus tomwt Fri, 11/08/2024 - 08:09 More CNAS in the Media Martin J. Kernan | Knowable Magazine November 06, 2024

KNOWABLE MAGAZINE - ore than three decades ago, amphibian researchers from around the globe converged on Canterbury, England, for the first World Congress of Herpetology — and, over drinks, shared the same frightening tale.

Frogs were disappearing in the wild, and no one could explain why.

...

Researchers also have discovered a virus of fungi that appears to infect weaker strains of Bd — pathogens for the pathogen, in other words. While harnessing such viruses to help fight Bd is a long way off, it might one day be another weapon. “In the science fiction version, you spray the virus in the field and the frogs all survive — that’s the hope,” says University of California, Riverside, mycologist Jason Stajich, coauthor of a recent report on the virus in Current Biology.

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Jason Stajich

A Virus May Help Save The World’s Amphibians From Extinction

tomwt — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 15:58:03 +0000

A Virus May Help Save The World’s Amphibians From Extinction tomwt Fri, 04/05/2024 - 08:58 More CNAS in the Media GrrlScientist | Forbes April 04, 2024

FORBES - A deadly fungus that is devastating frogs and toads around the world may in fact be vulnerable to a virus that can infect it. The fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis also known as Bd or the amphibian chytrid fungus, causes chytridiomycosis in amphibians. This fungus is a pathogen that infects and destroys the skin of frogs and toads, eventually causing heart failure due to electrolyte loss.

Bd is causing a global pandemic that has either contributed to or caused the probable extinction of 90 amphibian species, including that of the Panamanian golden frog, Atelopus zeteki, or the severe declines of more than 500 amphibian species.

A team of researchers at the University of California at Riverside, recently announced their discovery of a virus that infects Bd. Further, they think it can be genetically engineered to control or destroy the fungal disease, thereby saving declining amphibian populations.

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Jason Stajich

Could a new virus put an end to the global amphibian pandemic?

tomwt — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 15:19:53 +0000

Could a new virus put an end to the global amphibian pandemic? tomwt Fri, 04/05/2024 - 08:19 More CNAS in the Media Andrei Ionescu | Earth.com April 04, 2024

EARTH.COM - A team of scientists led by the University of California, Riverside (UCR) may have found a potential weak point in the fight against a fungus decimating frog and toad populations across the globe. The study focused on a virus that infects the fungus responsible for the global amphibian pandemic, offering a possible avenue for intervention.

Declining amphibian species worldwide
The culprit, a fungus known as Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis or Bd, attacks the skin of frogs and toads, leading to heart failure. It is implicated in the decline of over 500 amphibian species worldwide and the possible extinction of 90 species, including the yellow-legged mountain frogs in the Sierras and the Panamanian golden frog.

However, the recent discovery of a virus that infects Bd not only contributes for understanding how fungal pathogens emerge and spread, but also sparks hope for halting what is currently termed a global amphibian pandemic.

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Jason Stajich

New virus found lurking in the genome of deadly chytrid fungus

tomwt — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 16:03:16 +0000

New virus found lurking in the genome of deadly chytrid fungus tomwt Thu, 04/04/2024 - 09:03 More CNAS in the Media Imma Perfetto | Cosmos Magazine April 04, 2024

COSMOS - There’s new hope today for the future of the globe’s amphibians which are being wiped out by a devastating disease.

The fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd, causes the amphibian disease chytridiomycosis.

Now, the first discovery of a virus that infects Bd has been described in a paper in the journal Current Biology, which could have important implications for the development of new research tools to study the fungus and may even hold the potential to one day help control the predator..

The virus, named BdDV-1, was found by chance by researchers working on the population genetics of chytrid to gain a better understanding about where the fungus came from and how it is mutating.

“We wanted to see how different strains of fungus differ in places like Africa, Brazil, and the US, just like people study different strains of COVID-19,” says Jason Stajich, a professor of microbiology at the University of California Riverside, and senior author of the study.

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Jason Stajich

Newly found proteins stop fungal “bleeding”

Site Factory admin — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 16:36:28 +0000

Newly found proteins stop fungal “bleeding” Site Factory admin Thu, 12/03/2020 - 08:36 More CNAS in the Media Viviane Callier | The Scientist online November 12, 2020

THE SCIENTIST - Mycelium is the fabric of fungal populations: fungi produce thread-like roots called hyphae, which branch and fuse with one another to form a vast, interconnected network—the mycelium. It allows fungi to grow rapidly, transport nutrients, and even share information about the local environment over long distances. The network is also vulnerable; a wound could lead to catastrophic bleeding of protoplasm that can lead to death. While some fungal species separate their filaments into compartments with septal walls that can limit leakage, other fungi do not make any walls, and mycologists haven’t known how they respond to an injury.

“This was a creative way to discover the proteins that might be responsible for this phenomenon,” says mycologist Jason Stajich at University of California, Riverside, who was not involved in the research. He praised the team’s ability to make observations of the fungal gelation response and “work backwards to identify the actual molecular basis of that.”

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Jason Stajich elected as Fellow into the American Academy of Microbiology

ilseu — Thu, 20 Feb 2020 19:43:46 +0000

Jason Stajich elected as Fellow into the American Academy of Microbiology ilseu Thu, 02/20/2020 - 11:43 More College News Joanna Urban | American Academy of Microbiology February 19, 2020

Washington, DC – In February, the American Academy of Microbiology (Academy) elected 68 new Fellows to the Class of 2020. Fellows of the American Academy of Microbiology, an honorific leadership group within the ASM, are elected annually through a highly selective, peer-review process, based on their records of scientific achievement and original contributions that have advanced microbiology. The Academy received 118 nominations this year and accepted 58% of nominees.

There are over 2,500 Fellows in the Academy representing all subspecialties of the microbial sciences and involved in basic and applied research, teaching, public health, industry, and government service. In addition, Fellows hail from all around the globe. The Class of 2020 represents fellows from 11 different countries, including Australia, Austria, Brazil, Chile, China, France, Germany, Israel, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The 2020 Academy Fellows are:

Christopher Aiken, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University Medical Center
David Alland, M.D., M.Sc. DTM&H, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
Lauren Bakaletz, Ph.D., Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Jimmy Ballard, Ph.D., University of Oklahoma Health Science Center
Gregory Barton, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Richard Bennett, Ph.D., Brown University
Kristen Bernard, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Veterinary Medicine
David Blehert, Ph.D., U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center
Robert Bourret, Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Medicine
Miriam Braunstein, Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Medicine
Shi Chen, Ph.D., Wuhan University
Peter Chien, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Amherst
Jeffrey Cirillo, Ph.D., Texas A & M University, College of Medicine
Cynthia Cornelissen, Ph.D., Georgia State University
Robert Cramer, Ph.D., Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
Christina Cuomo, Ph.D., Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Andrew Darwin, Ph.D., New York University
Valérie de Crécy-Lagard, Ph.D., University of Florida
Christophe d'Enfert, Ph.D., Institut Pasteur
Anna Dongari-Bagztoglou, M.D., Ph.D., University of Connecticut
Michael Federle, Ph.D., University of Illinois, College of Pharmacy
Matthew Fisher, Ph.D., Imperial College London
Katherine Fitzgerald, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Medical School
Nisha Garg, M.D., University of Texas Medical Branch
Wendy Garrett, Ph.D., Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Uri Gophna, Ph.D., Tel Aviv University
Mark Goulian, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
Sarah Gurr, Ph.D., Exeter University
Randall Hayden, Ph.D., St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Eric Houpt, M.D., University of Virginia
Akiko Iwasaki, M.D., Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Yale University School of Medicine
Dong-Yan Jin, M.D., Ph.D., Sc.D., University of Hong Kong
Dennis Kyle, Ph.D., University of Georgia
Scott Landfear, Ph.D., Oregon Health & Science University
Luis Larrondo, Ph.D., Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Cornelia Lass-Flörl, M.D., Ph.D., Medical University of Innsbruck, Institute of Hygiene and Medical Mycology, CD Laboratory for Invasive Fungal Infection
Benhur Lee, Ph.D., Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Jian Li, Ph.D., Monash University
Purificacion Lopez-Garcia, Ph.D., Centre National de la Recheche Scientifique
Chuanbin Mao, Ph.D., University of Oklahoma
Pietro Mastroeni, M.D., Ph.D., Sci.D., University of Cambridge
Kalai Mathee, Ph.D., Florida International University
Robin May, Ph.D., University of Birmingham
Sandra McLellan, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin School of Freshwater Sciences
Douglas Nixon, Ph.D., Weill Cornell Medicine
Suzanne Noble, Ph.D., University of California San Francisco (UCSF)
Henry Paulus, M.D., Ph.D., University of Chicago
Andrew Pekosz, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Mircea Podar, Ph.D., Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Sanjay Ram, M.D., University of Massachusetts Medical School
Lalita Ramakrishnan, Ph.D., University of Cambridge
Michael Riscoe, Ph.D., Oregon Health & Science University
Marcio Rodrigues, Ph.D., Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Carlos Chagas Institute
Louise Rollins-Smith, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Tony Romeo, Ph.D., University of Florida
Cliona Rooney, Ph.D., Baylor College of Medicine
David Rudner, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School
Nasia Safdar, M.D., Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison
Jason Stajich, Ph.D., University of California, Riverside
Chad Steele, Ph.D., Tulane University School of Medicine
Roger Stephan, D.V.M., Ph.D., University of Zurich, Institute for Food Safety and Hygiene
Eva Stukenbrock, Ph.D., Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Biology
Matthew Sullivan, Ph.D., Ohio State University
Joyce Sutcliffe, Ph.D., Institute for Life Science Entrepreneurship
Christine Szymanski, Ph.D., University of Georgia
Brenda Wilson, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Tanja Woyke, Ph.D., U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute
Hui Wu, Ph.D., University of Alabama at Birmingham

Read the original announcement on the AMS website:

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Jason Stajich