In the research work entitled “Candida expansion in the gut of lung cancer patients associates with an ecological signature that supports growth under dysbiotic conditions” we investigated the role of the gut microbiome on Candida expansion in lung cancer patients at risk of candidiasis.
As a first step prior to bloodstream infection during invasive candidiasis, Candida species outgrow other fungi and dominate the gut community. How gut bacteria might promote or restrict this overgrowth is still unclear. By developing machine learning models, we could predict high or low Candida levels and propose a mechanism for Candida colonization.
Our results suggest that dysbiotic changes to the local microflora can create a metabolic niche for Candida species to use lactate as a Carbon source under low Oxygen conditions. We speculate that this advantage may help Candida to overtake their fungal competitors in the human gut.
The research was led by PerMiCCion’s coordinator Prof. Gianni Panagiotou and first author Bastian Seelbinder. We are very grateful to our collaborators and BMBF and the National Decade against Cancer for their support.
Original Publication: Seelbinder B#, Lohinai Z*, Vazquez-Uribe R, Brunke S, Chen X, Mirhakkak M, Lopez-Escalera S, Dome B, Megyesfalvi Z, Berta J, Galffy G, Dulka E, Wellejus A, Weiss GJ, Bauer M, Hube B, Sommer MOA, Panagiotou G (2023) Candida expansion in the gut of lung cancer patients associates with an ecological signature that supports growth under dysbiotic conditions. Nat Commun 14(1), 2673.

On March 02, the PerMiCCion consortium met with all consortia funded in the working group “Prevention” of the National Decade against cancer initiative at the BMBF building (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) in Berlin.
The event, organized by the BMBF with the support of the German Aerospace Center, was a great opportunity to strengthen communication between the four funded consortia, discuss the progress of the projects and identify common challenges and collaboration opportunities. Collaborations between consortia will synergize research and accelerate the discovery of new diagnostic, prognostic, and treatment methods to combat colon cancer in young patients.
In addition, we have the pleasure to get a look at the patient perspectives, thanks to the excellent talk of Dr. Dirk Hellrung. The patient's role goes beyond mere participation in clinical trials and is progressively shifting to a more active role that can influence the way research is conducted.
We thank all the attendees of the event for the exciting exchange of ideas and a special thanks to BMBF and DLR for making this meeting possible. Until next time!

On November 17, the PerMiCCion consortium met for the first time in Berlin. Since the launch of this collaborative project in May 2022, Dr. Gianni Panagiotou and the scientists involved in PerMiCCion have been meeting regularly via video conferencing to set up the first steps of the project. Now they finally had the opportunity to personally meet each other, discuss the work achieved so far, and plan the future directions of the consortium. In addition, we were delighted to be joined by the founder of the German Foundation for Young Adults with Cancer, a non-profit organization supporting young cancer patients.