Associate ProfessorJulianne Djordjevic

Invasive fungal diseases pose a serious threat to human health, killing as many people as tuberculosis and malaria and more than breast cancer. Aspergillus, Candida and Cryptococcus species are among the most prevalent invasive fungal pathogens. Using Cryptococcus as a model, we aim to better understand how fungi cause disease and to identify new targets for urgently needed antifungal drug development.

A major research interest in our laboratory is understanding how inositol polyphosphate metabolites regulate functions essential for fungi to infect and spread within a human host. The lab was the first to characterise the inositol polyphosphate biosynthesis pathway in a fungal pathogen of medical significance (Cryptococcus neoformans) and show how central this pathway is to fungal virulence using macrophage and mouse infection models.

We aim to identify the proteins that inositol polyphosphates interact with and the consequences of disrupting these molecular interactions on fungal virulence in the various fungal infection models.

Another major interest we have is to identify focal points of cross talk between key virulence-related signalling pathways, with a view to drug discovery.

We also have a number of antifungal drug discovery projects in collaboration with Sydney Analytical (Drug Discovery Initiative), Monash University, Western Sydney Local Health District, University of North Carolina and CSIRO, which have led to a provisional patent funded by an Australian Biotech company.

Julianne Djordjevic (0000-0003-4207-4115) - ORCID

https://www.westmeadinstitute.org.au/people/researcher-profiles-search/associate-professor-julianne-djordjevic/biography

https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=nPe1O64AAAAJ&hl=en