What If Fungi Win?

Arturo Casadevall, MD, PhD, is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor and Alfred and Jill Summer Chair of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Casadevall is the author of more than 1,000 publications, and his key research interests are focused on host defense mechanisms, how fungi cause disease, and the development of antibody-based therapies for infectious diseases. His research on fungi has been funded for three decades by NIH and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, among others. In addition to his medical mycology work, Casadevall is an entrepreneur with several patents for fungi-based inventions, including eco-friendly packaging. He is editor-in-chief of mBio and senior editor of eLife, was deputy editor of the Journal of Clinical Investigation and serves on several editorial boards. He has served on the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity and the National Commission on Forensic Science. He is currently chair of the Board of Governors of the American Academy of Microbiology, the honorific arm of the American Society for Microbiology. He has received numerous honors including election to the American Society for Clinical Investigation; American Academy of Physicians; American Academy of Microbiology; Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science; American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences. He is an elected member of the Council for Foreign Relations. Casadevall was a featured expert guest on NPR station WYPR's RadioLab podcast 2020 episode "Fungus Amungus" as well as on "The Kingdom: How Fungi Made Our World," a 2018 documentary. Stephanie Desmon is a communications director at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and an award-winning journalist. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, and many other publications. Desmon also co-hosts Hopkins' Public Health on Call podcast.