On 13 and 14 april the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, Utrecht, is hosting a Spring Symposium on One Health Mycology.
There will be speakers on the topics: Veterinary and Human health and Soil and Plant health; Fungal resistance and metabolites and Indoor- and food spoilage fungi.
There is a wide variation of topics. Registration is 200 Euro. You will find information about this symposium and the possibility to register here: https://wi.knaw.nl/news/details/119171
Dates:             13-14  April 2026
Location:        Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute – Auditorium
                       Uppsalalaan 8, 3584 CT Utrecht, Netherlands
Registration:   200 Euro
Program: 
Monday 13.04.2026
08.00-09.00    Registration
09.00-09.10    Welcome and Opening
                        Wieland Meyer
 09.10-09.50    Plenary 1: Animal/Human Health
                        Chair: Wieland Meyer
                        Speaker: Isabella Dib Ferreira Gremião (Brazil)
Title: “The emergence of Sporotrichosis – the link between Environment, and Animal and Human Infections”
 09.50-11.20    Veterinary Health
                        Chair: Patrizia Danesi (Italy)
                        (1 x 20 min and 4 x15 min Talks)
1)      Mark Krockenberger (Australia)
Title: “Cryptococcosis in Koalas”
2)      Patrizia Danesi (Italy)
Title: “Candida auris in animals a potential reservoir for human infection”
3)      Andrea Peano (Italy)
Title: “Dermatological relevant fungi in animals’
4)      Marloes van Dijk (Netherlands)
Title: TBA
5)      TBA
 11.20-11.40    Coffee Break
 11.40-13.10    Human Health
    Chair: Ferry Hagen (Netherlands)
    (1 x 20 min and 4 x15 min talks)
1)      Elisabeth Castaneda (Colombia)
Title: “Cryptococcosis and its etiological agents – from the environment to the human infection – the Latin American View”
2)      Vit Hubka (Czech Republic)
Title: “Arthroderma across ecosystems: reservoirs, species boundaries and antifungal susceptibility in a OneHealth context”
3)      Wendy van der Sande (Netherlands)
Title: “Unravelling eumycetoma grain formation using the invertebrate Galleria mellonella.
4)      Ferry Hagen (Netherlands)
Title: “Novel and emerging fungal pathogens in the clinic”
5)      Michaela Lackner (Austria)
Title: “Global antifungal resistance can only be tackled by OneHealth solutions”                
13.10-14.00    Lunch Break
 14.00-14.40    Plenary 2: Soil Health
                        Chair: Camille Delavaux (Netherlands)
Liesje Mommer (Netherlands)
Title: “Living Soils Under Pressure: Learning from Nature to Restore Ecosystem Services and Build Food System Resilience”
 14.40-16.00    Soil Health
Chair: Camille Delavaux (Netherlands)
(1 x 20 min and 4 x15 min talks)
1)      Camille Delavaux (Netherlands)
Title: TBA
2)      Thom Kuyper (Netherlands)
Title: “The essential role of fungal health for forest health.”
3)      Gianluigi Cardinali (Italy)
Titel: “Soil yeasts as mitigators of salinity effects on plants, risks and perspectives”
4)      Hazal Kandemir (Netherlands)
Title: “Interconnected risks, integrated research: Soil fungi and OneHealth”
5)      TBA
16.00-16.20    Coffee Break
 16.20-17.00    Plenary 3: Plant Health
Chair: Pedro Crous (Netherlands)
                        Bernard Slippers (South Africa)
Title: “Silent Threats: How latent pathogens reshape forest health in a changing climate”
 17.00-18.15    Plant Health
                        Chair: Ewald Groenewald (Netherlands
(5 x15 min talks)
1)      Einar Martinez de la Parte (Netherlands)
Title: “Microbes and biocontrol of parasitic weeds”
2)      Neriman Yilmaz (South Africa)
Titel: “Facial eczema in cattle”
3)      David Hernández-Hernández
Title: “Fungal endophytes in avocado nursery plants and plant health risks”
4)      Marco Thines (Germany)
Title: “Past, present, and future plant pathogen pandemics and their significance for human health”
5)      Like Fokkins
Title: “Evolutionary mechanisms underlying resistance in Fusarium”
 18.15-20.00    Reception
                        Hubrecht/Westerdijk – Cafeteria
 
Tuesday 14.04.2026
 09.00-09.40    Plenary 4: OneHealth
                        Chair: Sybren de Hoog (Netherlands)
                        Aristea Velegraki/Michail Arbatzis (Greece)
Title: “The changing landscape of fungal diseases and antifungal resistance through the lens of climate variability and change.”
 09.40-11.00     Drivers and development of antifungal resistance
Chair: Paul Verweij (Netherlands)
(1 x 20 min and 4 x15 min talks)
1)      Paul Verweij (Netherlands)
Title: “Antifungal usage and resistance in the clinics”
2)      Balász Brankovics (Netherlands)
Title: “Population genomics of environmental azole resistance in Aspergillus fumigatus”
3)      Ya Bin Zhou (Netherlands)
Title: “Roles of cyp51 genes in mediating azole resistance in Aspergillus flavus”
4)      Beatrice Strinati (Italy)
Title: “Distribution of biofilm formation and resistance among clinical and environmental isolates of the genus Candida”
5)      TBA
 11.00-11.30    Coffee Break
 11.30-13.00    Fungal solutions for One Health
Chair: Jérôme Collemare (Netherlands)
(1 x 20 min and 4 x15 min talks)
1)      Marc Stadler (Germany)
Title: “Pathogenic Neomycota and their secondary metabolites”
2)      Tom Harrijvan (Westerdijk Institute, Netherland)
Title: “Fungi as a source of novel antimicrobials against pan-resistant bacterial pathogens”
3)      Bart Thomma (Germany)
Title: “Fungal pathogens coopt ancient antimicrobials for host manipulation”
4)      Khyati Bhatt (Westerdijk Institute, Netherlands)
Title: “Discovery of novel fungal compounds against a new target to control the rice blast fungus Pyricularia oryzae”
5)      Linda Gouka (Netherlands)
Titel: “Catching cereal killers; functional diversity of phyllosphere yeasts.”
 13.00-14.00    Lunch
 14.00-14.30    Westerdijk Awards
                        Wieland Meyer (Netherlands)
 14.30-16.30    Fungi in Indoor and Food Environments: Health and Food Safety Perspectives – Celebrating the 80th Birthday of Rob Samson
                        Chair: Jos Houbraken (Netherland)
                        (1 x 20 min, 5 x 15 min talks)
1)      Ronald de Vries (Luxembourg)
Title: “Inter- and intra-species diversity of Aspergillus”
2)      Beom Hong (South Korea)
Title: “Meju or Penicillium and Aspergillus taxonomy in South Korea”
3)      Alex Grum (Netherlands)
Title: “Exploring natamycin resistance in fungi” 
4)      Birgitte Andersen (Denmark)
Title: “Detection of source of Aspergillus flavus infection at Copenhagen University Hospital”
5)      TBA
6)      Rob Samson (Netherlands)
Title: “Looking back at a career in mycology”
 16.30-17.00    Closing
Wieland Meyer (Netherlands)