MrRodrigo Antonio Monteirinho Leitao

I am currently working on a NERC grant "Understanding the eco-evolutionary drivers of emerging antifungal resistance" where I am screening UK soils for the presence of fungicides by LC-MS analysis.

In addition I am also involved in a project which aims to detect the presence of fungal pathogens associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) within the UK. The objective is to develop proof-of-principle metagenomics protocols to detect fungal DNA and RNA in cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) and in brain tissue from AD/PD patients.

Finally, I am involved in the Wellcome Trust grant "Understanding and mitigating the impact of emerging antifungal resistance". During this project I have been responsible for collecting, preparing, processing, and storing clinical and environmental samples of Aspergillus fumigatus. As part of my role, I was also involved in preparing samples for whole genome sequencing and performing antifungal susceptibility testing.