MYCO TALKS S7 E3

Dr Delma Childers is a Senior Lecturer in Medical Sciences at the University of Aberdeen, where she established her medical mycology research group in 2019. Following her PhD at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and postdoctoral research with Professor Al Brown, her work has focused on fungal metabolism, environmental sensing, immune evasion, virulence and antifungal resistance, particularly in *Candida* species and *Nakaseomyces glabratus*. She is also passionate about science communication and public engagement, contributing expert commentary to BBC Scotland and podcasts, and advising on microbiological accuracy for a feature film.

Dr Rachel Lai is an Associate Professor in Molecular Infections at Imperial College London, where she leads research into the immunometabolic mechanisms underlying innate inflammation and HIV-associated opportunistic infections. Following her PhD at Imperial and postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge and Francis Crick Institute, she established her independent research group through an MRC Career Development Award. Her work combines multi-omics approaches and experimental models to investigate disease mechanisms, identify biomarkers and potential treatments, with a growing focus on fungal infections, including *Pneumocystis* pneumonia.