Dr. Iliyan D. Iliev

Common fungi, often present in the gut, teach the immune system how to respond to their more dangerous relatives, according to new research from scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Dr. Iliyan Iliev, an associate professor of immunology in medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and a scientist in the Jill Roberts Institute for Research in Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Weill Cornell Medicine, has been awarded the Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease (PATH) award by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.

Higher levels of a type of fungus in the gut are associated with better outcomes for patients with a type of inflammatory bowel disease called ulcerative colitis who are treated with gut microbes from healthy donors.

Common drug treatments that lead to changes in gut fungi can persistently exacerbate allergic airway diseases such as asthma.

Vaccines containing inactivated versions of disease-causing germs are traditionally not as effective as live vaccines made with weakened pathogens.