Our goal is to use innovative drug discovery techniques to create impact at the bedside. By combining advanced chemistry with genetics and clinical insight, we aim to deliver efflux-resistant treatments that save lives and reduce the growing burden of fungal disease on the NHS and globally.”
Miraz Rahman, Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, King's College London
08 September 2025
Researchers win £1.45m award to outsmart drug-resistant fungal infections
A £1.45 million Medical Research Council (MRC) award will fund a major research project led by Professor Miraz Rahman to develop a new generation of efflux-resistant antifungal agents against Candida auris, a WHO “critical” pathogen with mortality rates exceeding 50%, and other Candida species.
The grant will enable researchers from King's, as well as partners the UK Health Security Agency and the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology, to identify new antifungal medicines suitable for clinical development to treat invasive candidiasis infections.
Candida auris is a deadly pathogen that is spreading in hospital intensive care units, especially among patients with weakened immune systems, such as those undergoing chemotherapy. Only a few antifungal drug classes are currently in use and resistance is rising, creating an urgent need for safer and more effective treatments for invasive candidiasis. Recently, the WHO released the first Fungal Priority Pathogens List (FPPL), ranking 19 pathogens as critical, high, or medium priority based on public-health importance, incidence, mortality, and drug resistance, highlighting the need for new therapies.
The team will use King’s Efflux Resistance Breaker (ERB) technology to improve a common class of antifungal drugs, called azoles, so they can overcome the fungus’s natural defences. Fungi often resist treatment by using tiny pumps, known as efflux pumps, to push drugs out of their cells. By combining advanced chemistry with gene-editing tools like CRISPR, the researchers will study key pumps, such as Cdr1 and Mdr1, and design drugs that can bypass or block them.
Dr Barry Panaretou, a co-applicant at King’s, will lead the genetic manipulation of efflux pumps.
We will use CRISPR editing to switch off or tune the key pumps in Candida, then watch how the fungus adapts. This will tell us exactly which pumps matter in different clinical settings and how to design ERB compounds that remain effective in the real world.”
Dr Barry Panaretou, Senior Lecturer, Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, King's College London
The project has potential out significantly advance antifungal therapy, addressing a major unmet clinical need and establishing practical design rules for future efflux-resistant treatments.
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Professor of Medicinal Chemistry
Senior Lecturer