Cushion to serve as special issue journal editor

Melanie T. Cushion, PhD, senior associate dean for research, is serving as the special issue editor for the Journal of Fungi. The issue, expected to publish this summer, will focus on “Women Scientists in Fungal Infections.”

“I was honored to be asked to serve as editor for this special issue that will highlight women scientists studying infections caused by pathogenic fungi,” Cushion says. “Women have been underrepresented in many scientific disciplines and a feature like this will cast light on an area of microbiology that doesn’t always grab the spotlight.”

Articles, with women as first or senior authors, will cover basic biology and reproduction of fungi, drug development, host responses, anti-fungal resistance and neglected tropical diseases. Deadline for manuscript submissions in the international, peer-reviewed open-access journal is May 1.

Cushion is a noted expert in the field having researched fungal pathogens for more than 30 years. After her graduate studies, which focused on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, she joined the laboratory of Peter Walzer, MD, now emeritus professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, for post-doctoral studies. There she became acquainted with the unusual organisms referred to as Pneumocystis. At that time, these microbes were thought to be protozoans, but her work with others in the college led to the discovery that they were fungal pathogens.

“As I was conducting my studies on the species of Pneumocystis that infected immunosuppressed rats, an outbreak of a pneumonia caused by Pneumocystis that mostly occurred in gay men, was garnering national and international attention,” she says. “PcP, as the pneumonia came to be called, caused a high rate of mortality in patients with the infection. This obscure fungus came to the forefront then, and remains an important and potentially deadly disease in HIV-infected patients and more recently in cancer patients receiving immunosuppressive agents, as well as any patient receiving immunosuppressive therapy.”

Cushion says in researching the contributions of women to mycology, she found that during the 14^th to 17^th century women were considered the keepers of the knowledge of edible mushrooms and those that could be used for medicine. This was not viewed well by society or male physicians who tried to bring “respect” to their profession and outlawed such traditional medicine, she says. This also was the “witch hunt” period, where many women and some men were killed and much knowledge was lost. For the next century women were still prohibited from entering scientific fields.

She notes that Beatrix Potter, the author of “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” and a mycologist, was unable to present her paper, “On the Germination of the Spores of Agaricaceae,” in 1897 to the Linnean Society in London because she was a woman. Additionally, Fanny (Angelina) Hesse discovered agar, the mainstay of modern microbiology and still used today to culture many bacteria and fungi for diagnostic purposes, but Robert Koch, the “father of microbiology,” in whose lab she worked, claimed the discovery for himself to advance his own career. Hesse never received appropriate credit for this landmark discovery, Cushion says.

“We should keep in mind that women, then, laid the foundation for modern mycology,” says Cushion, who is serving as a special issue editor for the first time and has contributed to other special journal issues. “This issue will celebrate the contributions of women who have and still are at the center of discovery in mycology, but still face obstacles in promotions and parity with their male counterparts.”

In her research, Cushion recently found that by halting the sexual reproductive cycle using treatment with echinocandins, a newer class of antifungal drugs, the infection can be eradicated and prevented in the rodent models of Pneumocystis pneumonia, providing a potential alternative treatment in humans. Rezafungin, a long-acting echinocandins, currently is in Phase 3 clinical trials and may soon be available. Sexual reproduction now is a novel drug target for fungi, she says.

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