C. auris is the cause of major hospital outbreaks in various parts of the world, due to its ability to rapidly spread in healthcare settings. The limited accuracy of conventional identification methods and lack of awareness – despite governmental alerts in some countries – contributed to the underestimation of the current worldwide prevalence of C. auris colonization and epidemiology of C. auris infections. Designing strategies allowing to investigate C. auris pathogenicity and drug-resistance mechanisms using genetic and functional genomics approaches could improve our understanding of C. auris epidemiology, nosocomial transmission and virulence. We have launched an Institut Pasteur International Network (IPIN)-driven initiative for i) the creation of a genetic resource allowing to study the function of C. auris “decision-making” proteins: Kinases and identify the essential ones, ii) implementing extensive phenotypic profiling of the generated collection in
vitro as well as in vivo, in an animal model of C. auris infection to identify central kinases that control the ability of C. auris to withstand environmental stress and express its drug resistance and virulence traits, and iii) tackling C. auris by use of the created resource in drug-screening assays that target C. auris essential kinases. We will initiate a strategic partnership that exploits current strengths and expertise among IPIN scientists from the Pasteur Institutes in Tunis, Paris and Shanghai for creating, validating and using a conditional C. auris kinase loss-of-function strain library to identify kinases that are central to C. auris drug resistance and pathogenicity traits, and we will capitalize on the expertise of IP Korea in drug screening for the discovery of lead compounds targeting C. auris essential kinases. Collectively, our IPIN initiative will set up the ground for implementing genetic and highthroughput technology-driven approaches for tackling the spread and transmission of C. auris.
