In 2005, Marcio Rodrigues, a recently hired assistant professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, was awarded an international fellowship for Latin investigators from ASM to travel to the laboratory of Arturo Casadevall at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM), Bronx, N.Y., for three months to make monoclonal antibodies to fungal lipids.  
 
In New York, Rodrigues relied on the expertise of the Casadevall laboratory in producing monoclonal antibodies in mice and quickly found that the fungal lipids were not sufficiently immunogenic to attempt making hybridomas. While searching for a backup project, Casadevall hypothesized that transport of macromolecules to the extracellular environment in fungal cells involves extracellular vesicles that would probably accumulate in culture supernatants. Rodrigues used his experience in lipids to look for vesicles by standard centrifugation methods and found them very quickly. After his return to Brazil this collaboration continued, leading to a joint publication (M. L. Rodrigues et al., Eukaryot. Cell 6:48-59, 2007). Rodrigues also established connections with other investigators during his visit, including Joshua Nosanchuk.  

A direct consequence of the 2005 visit was the discovery of vesicular transport pathway in fungi that is similar to mammalian exosomes. Both groups have continued to study how fungi secrete macromolecules and have found that this is a complex biological event that includes the release of vesicles to the extracellular space. Terse scientific papers seldom provide information on the history of the work described in the publication; however, we feel that these events are worth detailing because they illustrate the value of international collaboration and the hand of serendipity.  

Two years later, driven by several questions that were raised during the initial collaboration projects with the Casadevall and Nosanchuk laboratories, Rodrigues returned to New York for a second stay, this time with support from the Casadevall laboratory and CAPES, a Brazilian agency for financial support of scientific research. This second visit was fundamental to solidify the scientific connections established during the initial, ASM-supported visit. To date, the collaboration involving the laboratories of Arturo Casadevall, Josh Nosanchuk, and Marcio Rodrigues have resulted in the publication of 16 peer-reviewed scientific articles and one book chapter. More importantly, the collaboration between these groups has promoted a major international scientific exchange in which AECOM and Brazilian researchers have visited each other and which has expanded to include other research groups in projects that cover different aspects of fungal biology. Recently Susana Frases, a former postdoctoral fellow at the Casadevall laboratory, moved to work as an investigator in the research center Inmetro in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Radames Cordero, a Ph.D. student at the Casadevall lab, will spend two months working at UFRJ in 2009. Another Brazilian student from the Rodrigues lab, Fernanda Fonseca, will visit the Casadevall lab soon, with a project that will again be supported by ASM. The laboratories of Marcio Rodrigues in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and of Arturo Casadevall in New York City have now been working in close cooperation for the last four years.  

In Brazil, medical mycology remains a relatively small field despite the increasing relevance of fungal infections in this and other countries, and the interchange of scientific information and development of new experimental models are greatly delayed. This situation makes difficult the training of mycology students, which necessitates close interaction between Brazilian researchers and well-established senior scientists from developed countries.  

Although developing countries such as Brazil and India produce a large number of extremely well-trained young investigators every year, most recently formed Ph.D.'s have limited access to up-to-date techniques and to the scientific environment of excellent research centers. In Brazil, many programs supporting visits of local scientists to developing countries are available; some of them are restricted to senior scientists, and all of them are highly competitive. Consequently, the demand is much greater than the capacity. In this context, the ASM International Fellowship Program offers the chance for young investigators worldwide to visit leading research centers in the United States and Canada. We feel that these fellowships are highly efficient in promoting collaboration and advancement in science, since relatively modest amounts of money can have a disproportionately great impact in the careers of the investigators and the direction of science.  

Marcio L. Rodrigues  
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil  

Arturo Casadevall  
Albert Einstein College of Medicine  
Bronx, N.Y