Immunology of aspergillosis

Fungi of the genus Aspergillus cause a wide spectrum of acute and chronic diseases. Persons severely immunocompromised are at risk of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis, a disease with a high mortality that afflicts >200,000 persons per year. Sensitization to Aspergillus can result in allergic manifestations of disease including severe asthma and allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, the latter of which afflicts an estimated 5 million people. A major focus of our Aspergillus research program is delineating the contribution of eosinophil production of interleukin-17 in invasive and allergic disease. A second focus is unraveling the mechanisms by which influenza infection predisposes people to invasive aspergillosis.