In his research, Teun Boekhout will focus on the (bio)functional diversity and natural niches of (pathogenic) fungi, including yeasts. He will do this in both temperate regions and in the tropics. Among other things, he will examine the ecosystem functions of these fungi and investigate how these functions change under the influence of climate change, and also analyse the migratory routes of (mostly pathogenic) fungi. Furthermore, Boekhout will develop diagnostic tools for disease-causing fungi. Together with students from the UvA, he hopes to unravel the position that fermenting yeasts take within an ecosystem (natural niches) and exploit the resulting isolates for future fermentions.

Boekhout will lecture in the field of fungal biology, pathogens and symbionts to UvA Bachelor’s and Master’s students of the programmes Biology, Biomedical Sciences and Future Planet Studies.

Boekhout has worked at the CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre since 1987, and has headed research on yeasts and mushrooms since 2001. In addition, he is visiting professor at Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Medical Mycology and research fellow at the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IM-CAS) in Beijing. Boekhout is also chair of the Mycology and (other) Eukaryote Microbiology division of the International Union of Microbiological Societies (IUMS).