Mennat El Ghalid

She is an Egyptian research mycologist. Her work focuses on the identification of biological mechanisms involved in fungal pathogenecity - in an effort to develop more efficient strategies to combat fungal infections. She is currently working in the Biology and Pathogenicity Unit at Institut Pasteur (France) to study Candida albicans, an opportunistic pathogenic fungus and the main cause of fungal infections in immunocompromised humans. She received an Initial Training Networks (ITN) - Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship to pursue her PhD project in the Molecular Genetics of Fungal Pathogenicity Unit and the International Campus of Excellence in Agrifood CeiA3 at the Universidad de Cordoba (Spain). During her PhD, her former team (Pr. Antonio Di Pietro and Dr. David Turra, PhD director and co-director respectively) and herself identified the compounds secreted from the plant roots attracting Fusarium oxysporum, a soilborne plant pathogenic fungus and characterized the underlying mechanisms of attraction. Such compounds were tracked since the 19th century. The discovery was published in the Nature Journal. She co-founded ConScience (means WithKnowledge in latin), a non-profit organisation which purpose is promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics STEM education in Egypt through innovative, effective, exciting and transparent learning promoting curiosity and critical thinking.