Appili Therapeutics Inc. and its partner Vitalex Biosciences LLC have announced that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded up to $40 million in funding to support the development of VXV-01, a vaccine aimed at protecting against invasive fungal infections.

The fungus Candida auris has become an urgent clinical problem at a shocking speed. It was not even mentioned in the U.S. CDC’s 2013 reports on antimicrobial threats, but was one of five pathogens on the agency’s 2019 top-tier Urgent Threat List.

T2 Biosystems Inc. received a third FDA breakthrough device designation with its direct-from-blood molecular diagnostic test for Candida auris. The test joins its T2resistance panel and T2Lyme panel in gaining the breakthrough recognition and the increased access to the FDA that comes with it as the company seeks final approval or clearance. The C. auris test enables identification of the challenging pathogen in three to five hours instead of the several days often required to grow a culture traditionally.

By screening the microbiomes of marine organisms, scientists at the University of Wisconsin have identified nearly 150 potential new antifungal compounds, they reported in the November 20, 2020, issue of Science.

The climate crisis in the time of COVID-19 illustrates the difference between the important and the urgent. There is, of course, no alternative to focusing on the current pandemic. But at the same time, the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has not changed the fact that the climate crisis is a coming wave whose health consequences will ultimately dwarf those of any single infectious agent.