Thanks to the Foundation's efforts, the PHAC updates its classification of Malassezia restricta.
Montreal, 2021/01/08 - The Malassezia Foundation is pleased to report that today the Risk Group Database of the Public Health Agency of Canada has been updated to reflect the reclassification of Malassezia restricta from Risk Group 2, where it had been placed by default, to Risk Group 1, the lowest level of risk. This is the result of an application submitted to PHAC by the Malassezia Foundation in July 2020, in order to allow researchers who do not have access to BSL2 facilities to work with this Malassezia species.
Martin Laurence, the Foundation’s president, said:
“This is great news! Malassezia restricta and Malassezia globosa are the two fungal species most commonly found in and on humans, and they have been associated with important diseases—in particular Crohn’s disease and pancreatic cancer. It is thus of paramount importance that as many researchers as possible study these species, to fully elucidate their role in human health and disease. While Malassezia globosa was already classified as Risk Group 1, Malassezia restricta was not. Now both species can be studied by all microbiology labs in Canada. We hope this positive development will encourage more labs to enter this exciting and growing area of research. I’d like to thank the staff of the Centre for Biosecurity at the Public Health Agency of Canada for their help and collaboration in the matter. We look forward to promoting more initiatives to raise awareness surrounding Malassezia and to facilitate research on this fungal genus.”
If you wish to know more about this development or about the Foundation’s activities, please get in touch with us through our Contact page.