This past summer, I conducted research under Dr. Max Adelman and Alejandra in  the Candida Lab within the Division of Infectious Diseases at Houston Methodist, contributing to a data analytics project that examined the factors predisposing patients to mixed bacterial and Candida bloodstream infection (BSI) across the United States.

After characterizing the clinical and demographic traits that distinguished this population, we incorporated echinocandin resistance among Candida isolates and multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO) status among bacterial isolates, to construct a model predicting 30-day mortality in patients with mixed BSI. Candida is a genus whose case demographics have shifted dramatically in recent years, driven by a rising proportion of resistant non-albicans species; the shift has been pronounced enough that the World Health Organization now places several Candida species in the critical priority group of its Fungal Priority Pathogens List.

Because this epidemiologic transition is so recent, our work helps lay the groundwork for defining the epidemiology of Candida BSI in the United States. It also gives physicians a clearer sense of how mixed BSI diverges from mono-candidemia or bacteremia, and of whether a shift in therapy would meaningfully benefit these patients.