# Development of a high throughput-compatible assay for screening filamentous fungi

> **NIH NIH F32** · UNIVERSITY OF IOWA · 2022 · $51,094

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
 A major obstacle in the development of mold-active antifungals is limited methodologies for high
throughput screening with molds. Aspergillus fumigatus and Fusarium spp. are two common molds that cause
invasive infections in immune-compromised patients. Despite current antifungal treatments, limited to only three
unique classes of drugs, mortality rates of these infections are devastatingly high. In addition to the serious
health threat molds pose to immune-compromised patients, molds cause infections in immune-competent
individuals, particularly in the form of corneal infections, or fungal keratitis. Fungal keratitis is a leading cause of
monocular blindness worldwide and only about half of patients with corneal infections caused by Aspergillus or
Fusarium respond to treatment. The current state of fungal infections worldwide, combined with emerging
resistance to current antifungal drugs, calls for novel classes of mold-active antifungals to combat these life-
threatening infections.
 This proposal aims to fill a technical gap in the field by applying the adenylate kinase assay to filamentous
fungi to perform high throughput screening. The adenylate kinase assay has been validated and successfully
used for high throughput screening with yeast and bacteria and possesses several qualities that make it an
excellent candidate for application to molds. We have shown that this assay reliably detects lysis of A. fumigatus
and optimized conditions suitable for high throughput screening. In this proposal, our goal is to adapt this assay
to Fusarium oxysporum, then perform screens with Aspergillus and Fusarium with multiple small molecule and
natural product libraries. In addition to screening against wild type A. fumigatus, we will perform a repurposing
screen of FDA-approved drugs using a strain harboring a common voriconazole resistance mechanism. In this
way, we hope to identify novel classes of mold-active antifungal drugs, as well as drugs to be repurposed and
expedited to clinical use to treat fungal infections.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10311513
- **Project number:** 5F32AI145160-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
- **Principal Investigator:** Sarah R. Beattie
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $51,094
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-01-06 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10311513

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10311513, Development of a high throughput-compatible assay for screening filamentous fungi (5F32AI145160-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10311513. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*