The current special issue of the Revista Iberoamericana de Micología (RIAM) compiles a series of selected works presented during the 5th edition of the workshop Molecular Genetic Approaches to the Study of Human Pathogenic Fungi, held in October 2012, Oaxaca, México. This workshop was organized in collaboration with the Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Médicas y Biológicas, Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca, and the Centro de Investigaciones Multidisciplinarias UNAM-UABJO. This event brought together 15 international and 13 national speakers who discussed their most recent findings on different aspects of pathogenic fungi in an atmosphere of the highest scientific level. Topics included cell and molecular biology, glycobiology, fungal molecular taxonomy, epidemiology and molecular approaches to the pathophysiology of fungal diseases. The standard of quality of contributions makes this monographic issue of RIAM an invaluable document for all those interested in the biology of fungal pathogens.
Earlier editions of the workshop were held every four years in different academic institutions of Mexico, under the auspices of Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), and always with the enthusiastic collaboration of national and international guest researchers. Participant institutions included Facultad de Medicina (UNAM), Instituto de Investigación en Biología Experimental (Universidad de Guanajuato), Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, and Instituto Potosino de Investigación en Ciencia y Tecnología (IPICyT) in 1995, 1999, 2004 and 2008, respectively.
A major goal of these events has always been to promote a greater diffusion of recent findings in the molecular biology of human pathogenic fungi among Mexican researchers interested in fungal diseases, as well as to bring forth collaboration channels among renowned scientists with vanguard knowledge in fungal molecular biology and Mexican researchers and students from different institutions.
Contributions to prior events have been published in different journals. Accordingly, the first appeared in two special issues of Archives of Medical Research, vol. 26, numbers 3 and 4 (1995), while some selected papers from the second workshop appeared in Fungal Genetics and Biology during 2000 and 2001. Publications from the third event appeared in a special issue of FEMS Immunology and Medical Microbiology in 2005, and selected papers from the fourth one were published in Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz during 2009.
The organizers of this 5th workshop appreciate the academic and logistic support of this prestigious journal, the outstanding contributors and the Mexican sponsoring institutions, in particular UNAM, as all they made the publication of this RIAM special issue possible. Finally, we look forward to keep alive the tradition of organizing these workshops.
