Over 40 years ago, a lone scientist began exploring this critical, but neglected, inhabitant of the human body. Born and raised in Lebanon, Dr. Mahmoud Ghannoum is Director of the Center for Medical Mycology at Case Western Reserve University, one of the top 25 medical research universities in the United States (according to US News & World Report).

He began his scientific journey in England, studying Candida, a species of fungi that, when allowed to grow uncontrolled, can cause Candidiasis, an infection that afflicts millions of people worldwide.

This provoked his curiosity about the whole area of fungal microorganisms in the human body. Through the next four decades of research, he discovered that while there was a massive rise in studies of bacteria, fungus was largely ignored.  One reason is that fungal organisms tend to be highly unstable, making them extremely difficult to study.

For the longest time, Dr. Ghannoum’s work was known only to a minority within the scientific community. While many have heard of Candida, few people have any idea of the critical role that fungus plays in human health.

Through his research, Dr. Ghannoum established that fungal organisms constitute an essential part of the microbiome. In fact, in 2010, Dr. Ghannoum was the first scientist to identify over 100 native species of fungi in the oral cavity.

Like with bacteria, there are good fungi as well as bad fungi. And just as it was startling to discover that we need positive bacteria in our guts, most people today are shocked to learn that their health depends on flourishing colonies of helpful fungi.