Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

However, this regime leads to selection of resistant strains and does not take into account the individual predisposition of the patient. Thus, new tools for the identification of patients at risk and new diagnosis and therapeutic strategies are needed. However, knowledge of molecular mechanisms and underlying networks leading to the protection of the host from an infection, i.e. lock the opportunistic fungus in the commensal state, is still in its infancy, but would lead to the identification of biomarkers, which indicate the risk of a patient to acquire a C. albicans infection. Therefore, this project aims at generating a systems understanding of the key mechanisms leading to the protection of the host by preventing the pathogenic state of C. albicans. The interdisciplinary consortium of universities, research institutes, clinics and SMEs will focus on the study of host-pathogen interactions by assessing, from a Systems Biology perspective, both the response of the host to Candida albicans, and of this opportunistic pathogen to the host under commensal and pathogenic conditions. While assisting in experimental design, data interpretation and hypothesis generation, a multi-scale modeling framework capturing the key features of the interaction of Candida albicans with host (epithelial)cells and of its switch from a commensal to a pathogen will be developed, experimentally tested and iteratively refined. Modelling and experimentation are intertwined at all stages of the project.It is anticipated that this multidisciplinary, integrated approach will lead to the identification of new diagnostic biomarkers and, ultimately, to novel intervention strategies against infections by commensal organisms such as Candida albicans.