OPATHY is a an European training network aimed to developing new diagnostic tools to study and manage human yeast infections. The network is coordinated by the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona, Spain, and brings together five universities, four companies and three research organisations, including two clinical centres.

Opathy ITN plans to create a new paradigm for the management of yeast infections. The immediate goal is to rapidly and accurately diagnose yeast diseases by means of innovative omics that will result in improved treatment strategies. OPATHY will explore the potential of next-generation high-throughput technologies, including genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics, to study the interactions of infectious yeasts (e.g. Candida and Cryptococcus sp.) with our body, and to develop new diagnostic tools to monitor yeast infections in the clinic.

The OPATHY Project, awarded with more than 3 million Euros, is a Marie-Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network funded by the European Commission under the H2020 Framework Program. The project brings together researchers in Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, Austria, United Kingdom and Belgium including both academic and private sector partners. After the official kick-off meeting the past 3rd of September at CRG, OPATHY opens today a call to recruit 13 PhD students for the different laboratories of the network. “We brought together the main experts in diverse fields, from technology developers to researchers and medical doctors in the clinic. This setting prompts to innovation and translation of basic research to practical solutions in the clinic. A really inspiring and rewarding environment to be trained in as a scientist of the future,” Gabaldón declares, who is an ICREA research professor and principal investigator at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona (Spain).