Although the means of diagnosing and treating fungal infections have improved greatly over the last decade, fungi still represent a serious threat to the health of immunocompromised and immunodeficient patients. In addition to the more commonly encountered fungi, recent years have also seen the emergence of life-threatening infections due to fungi that had previously been seen only rarely in clinical practice. Many of these fungi are difficult to detect and to treat and their emergence as serious agents of disease among specific patient cohorts presents new challenges to the delivery of safe and effective antifungal therapy.

Recent developments in antifungal drug development have led to the welcome introduction of the Echinocandins and various azole derivatives into routine clinical use. Diagnosis of fungal infections has been improved with the utilization of PCR and immunoassay techniques. Despite these advances in diagnosis and therapy, fungi remain serious threats to the health of susceptible patients and we must strive to fully understand the fungi responsible for these infections and their interactions with the host’s immune system if improved means of dealing with these infections are to be developed in the future.

The aim of this book is to give an in-depth assessment of our current understanding of the Biology of the main fungal pathogens and how they interact with the host. Each chapter focuses on a specific fungal pathogen or group of pathogens and examines their biology and the factors that allow the fungus colonize and disseminate within the host. In addition each chapter gives an indication of the challenges that remain to be tackled over the next 5–10 years in increasing our understanding of fungal pathogenicity. Each chapter is written by internationally recognized experts and this has ensured that the book is as comprehensive and authorative a text as is possible to assemble.