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Prof. Elaine Bignell 

Prof. Elaine Bignell joins MRC Centre for Medical Mycology

Professor Elaine Bignell, one of the world’s leading experts in fungal lung disease, has joined the University’s Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Medical Mycology from the University of Manchester.  

Professor Bignell specialises in leading research into lung disease caused by Aspergillus. Professor Bignell’s research has focussed on defining the cause of the disease, and is working on developing treatments, vaccines and diagnostic tools.

 

Welcoming Professor Bignell to the University, the Director of the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology Professor Gordon Brown said: “We are delighted that Professor Elaine Bignell has decided to join our research centre. 

Elaine brings world leading expertise in understanding how fungi cause disease. Her particular expertise is with a major fungal pathogen of humans, called Aspergillus, that is responsible for hundreds of thousands of life threatening infections every year and contributes to severe allergic disease that affects millions”.

A molecular geneticist by training, Professor Bignell began her independent research career as an MRC New Investigator, and by securing a fast-track to Lectureship Award at Imperial College London.

She later played a major role in establishing the Manchester Fungal Infection Group (MFIG) and in securing its success as a leading Interational Centre of Excellence for fungal diseases research, having served as a Director of this unit for 5 years (2015 – 2020).

Professor Bignell’s research seeks a mechanistic understanding of fungal lung disease with a view to developing novel diagnostics and antifungal therapies. Her approach integrates infection models which transcend multiple experimental scales to address disease outcomes at the molecular, cellular, tissue, organ and whole animal levels.

Date: 8 April 2020

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