Sebastian Wurster, MD, MSc

Peer-Reviewed Articles

1. Chiu CY, Matsuo T, Wurster S, Gerstein Y, Hammond DE, Chien KS, DiNardo C, Kontoyiannis DP. Invasive mucorales sinusitis in a young patient with Emberger syndrome and newly diagnosed AML: A case report and literature review of invasive fungal infections in GATA2 deficiency. Mycoses 66(12):1029-1034, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37550272.
2. Chowdhary A, Gupta N, Wurster S, Kumar R, Mohabir JT, Tatavarthy S, Mittal V, Rani P, Barman P, Sachdeva N, Singh A, Sharma B, Jiang Y, Cuomo CA, Kontoyiannis DP. Multimodal analysis of the COVID-19-associated mucormycosis outbreak in Delhi, India indicates the convergence of clinical and environmental risk factors. Mycoses 66(6):515-526, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 36790120.
3. Wurster S, Pantaleón García J, Albert ND, Jiang Y, Bhoda K, Kulkarni VV, Wang Y, Walsh TJ, Evans S, Kontoyiannis DP. Development of a Corticosteroid-Immunosuppressed Mouse Model to Study the Pathogenesis and Therapy of Influenza-Associated Pulmonary Aspergillosis. J Infect Dis 227(7):901-906, 2023. PMID: 36611269.
4. Toda M, Williams S, Jackson BR, Wurster S, Serpa JA, Nigo M, Grimes CZ, Atmar RL, Chiller TM, Ostrosky-Zeichner L, Kontoyiannis DP. Invasive Mold Infections Following Hurricane Harvey-Houston, Texas. Open Forum Infect Dis 10(3):ofad093, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 36910694.
5. Lauruschkat CD, Muchsin I, Rein A, Erhard F, Grathwohl D, Dölken L, Köchel C, Falk CS, Einsele H, Wurster S, Grigoleit GU, Kraus S. CD4+ T cells are the major predictor of HCMV control in allogeneic stem cell transplant recipients on letermovir prophylaxis. Front Immunol 14:1148841, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37234158.
6. Franklin A, Wurster S, Axell-House DB, Jiang Y, Kontoyiannis DP. Impact of Hyperglycemia and Diabetes Mellitus on Breakthrough Mucormycosis Outcomes in Patients with Hematologic Malignancies-Complex and Intriguing Associations. J Fungi (Basel) 9(1), 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 36675866.
7. Harish E, Sarkar A, Handelman M, Abo Kandil A, Shadkchan Y, Wurster S, Kontoyiannis DP, Osherov N. Triazole Priming as an Adaptive Response and Gateway to Resistance in Aspergillus fumigatus. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 66(8):e0045822, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35856665.
8. Wurster S, Paraskevopoulos T, Toda M, Jiang Y, Tarrand JJ, Williams S, Chiller TM, Jackson BR, Kontoyiannis DP. Invasive mould infections in patients from floodwater-damaged areas after hurricane Harvey - a closer look at an immunocompromised cancer patient population. J Infect 84(5):701-709, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35288118.
9. Spallone A, Moran CA, Wurster S, Axell-House DB, Kontoyiannis DP. Taking a Closer Look: Clinical and Histopathological Characteristics of Culture-Positive versus Culture-Negative Pulmonary Mucormycosis. J Fungi (Basel) 8(4), 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35448611.
10. Wurster S, Albert ND, Kontoyiannis DP. Candida auris Bloodstream Infection Induces Upregulation of the PD-1/PD-L1 Immune Checkpoint Pathway in an Immunocompetent Mouse Model. mSphere 7(2):e0081721, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35224979.
11. Hu C, Fong G, Wurster S, Kontoyiannis DP, Beyda ND. Clumping Morphology Influences Virulence Uncoupled from Echinocandin Resistance in Candida glabrata. Microbiol Spectr 10(1):e0183721, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35107318.
12. Wurster S, Albert ND, Bharadwaj U, Kasembeli MM, Tarrand JJ, Daver N, Kontoyiannis DP. Blockade of the PD-1/PD-L1 Immune Checkpoint Pathway Improves Infection Outcomes and Enhances Fungicidal Host Defense in a Murine Model of Invasive Pulmonary Mucormycosis. Front Immunol 13:838344, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35251033.
13. Tappe B, Lauruschkat CD, Strobel L, Pantaleón García J, Kurzai O, Rebhan S, Kraus S, Pfeuffer-Jovic E, Bussemer L, Possler L, Held M, Hünniger K, Kniemeyer O, Schäuble S, Brakhage AA, Panagiotou G, White PL, Einsele H, Löffler J, Wurster S. COVID-19 patients share common, corticosteroid-independent features of impaired host immunity to pathogenic molds. Front Immunol 13:954985, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 36052094.
14. Wurster S, Watowich SS, Kontoyiannis DP. Checkpoint inhibitors as immunotherapy for fungal infections: Promises, challenges, and unanswered questions. Front Immunol 13:1018202, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 36389687.
15. Wurster S, Ruiz OE, Tatara AM, Kontoyiannis DP, Eisenhoffer GT. Protocol for fungal infection following the induction of epithelial cell loss in larval zebrafish. STAR Protoc 2(4):100963, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 34849488.
16. Lauruschkat CD, Etter S, Schnack E, Ebel F, Schäuble S, Page L, Rümens D, Dragan M, Schlegel N, Panagiotou G, Kniemeyer O, Brakhage AA, Einsele H, Wurster S, Loeffler J. Chronic Occupational Mold Exposure Drives Expansion of Aspergillus-Reactive Type 1 and Type 2 T-Helper Cell Responses. J Fungi (Basel) 7(9), 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 34575736.
17. Lauruschkat CD, Page L, White PL, Etter S, Davies HE, Duckers J, Ebel F, Schnack E, Backx M, Dragan M, Schlegel N, Kniemeyer O, Brakhage AA, Einsele H, Loeffler J, Wurster S. Development of a Simple and Robust Whole Blood Assay with Dual Co-Stimulation to Quantify the Release of T-Cellular Signature Cytokines in Response to Aspergillus fumigatus Antigens. J Fungi (Basel) 7(6), 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 34201183.
18. Bose P, McCue D, Wurster S, Wiederhold NP, Konopleva M, Kadia TM, Borthakur G, Ravandi F, Masarova L, Takahashi K, Estrov Z, Yilmaz M, Daver N, Pemmaraju N, Naqvi K, Rausch CR, Marx KR, Qiao W, Huang X, Bivins CA, Pierce SA, Kantarjian HM, Kontoyiannis DP. Isavuconazole as Primary Anti-Fungal Prophylaxis in Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia or Myelodysplastic Syndrome: An Open-Label, Prospective, Phase II Study. Clin Infect Dis 72(10):1755-1763, 2021. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32236406.
19. Axell-House DB, Wurster S, Jiang Y, Kyvernitakis A, Lewis RE, Tarrand JJ, Raad II, Kontoyiannis DP. Breakthrough Mucormycosis Developing on Mucorales-Active Antifungals Portrays a Poor Prognosis in Patients with Hematologic Cancer. J Fungi (Basel) 7(3), 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 33802827.
20. Wurster S, Ruiz OE, Samms KM, Tatara AM, Albert ND, Kahan PH, Nguyen AT, Mikos AG, Kontoyiannis DP, Eisenhoffer GT. EGF-mediated suppression of cell extrusion during mucosal damage attenuates opportunistic fungal invasion. Cell Rep 34(12):108896, 2021. PMID: 33761358.
21. Wurster S, Lyos S, Albert ND, Kontoyiannis DP. Pharmacological serum concentrations of epinephrine and norepinephrine do not affect growth rate, morphogenesis, stress tolerance, and virulence of Candida albicans. Med Mycol 59(1):102-105, 2021. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32678869.
22. Lauruschkat CD, Page L, Etter S, Weis P, Gamon F, Kraus S, Einsele H, Wurster S, Loeffler J. T-cell immune surveillance in allogenic stem cell transplant recipients: Are whole blood-based assays ready to challenge ELISPOT?. Open Forum Infect Dis 8(1):ofaa547, 2021. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 33447629.
23. Page L, Wallstabe J, Lother J, Bauser M, Kniemeyer O, Strobel L, Voltersen V, Teutschbein J, Hortschansky P, Morton CO, Brakhage AA, Topp M, Einsele H, Wurster S, Loeffler J. CcpA- and Shm2-Pulsed Myeloid Dendritic Cells Induce T-Cell Activation and Enhance the Neutrophilic Oxidative Burst Response to Aspergillus fumigatus. Front Immunol 12:659752, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 34122417.
24. Wurster S, Sass G, Albert ND, Nazik H, Déziel E, Stevens DA, Kontoyiannis DP. Live imaging and quantitative analysis of Aspergillus fumigatus growth and morphology during inter-microbial interaction with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Virulence 11(1):1329-1336, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 33017225.
25. Seelbinder B, Wallstabe J, Marischen L, Weiss E, Wurster S, Page L, Löffler C, Bussemer L, Schmitt AL, Wolf T, Linde J, Cicin-Sain L, Becker J, Kalinke U, Vogel J, Panagiotou G, Einsele H, Westermann AJ, Schäuble S, Loeffler J. Triple RNA-seq reveals synergy in a human virus-fungus co-infection model. Cell Rep 33(7):108389, 2020. PMID: 33207195.
26. Page L, Lauruschkat CD, Helm J, Weis P, Lazariotou M, Einsele H, Ullmann AJ, Loeffler J, Wurster S. Impact of immunosuppressive and antifungal drugs on PBMC- and whole blood-based flow cytometric CD154+Aspergillus fumigatus specific T-cell quantification. Med Microbiol Immunol 209(5):579-592, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32236695.
27. Szvalb AD, Malek AE, Jiang Y, Bhatti MM, Wurster S, Kontoyiannis DP. Serum (1,3)-Beta-d-Glucan has suboptimal performance for the diagnosis of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia in cancer patients and correlates poorly with respiratory burden as measured by quantitative PCR. J Infect 81(3):443-451, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32650108.
28. Wurster S, Robinson P, Albert ND, Tarrand JJ, Goff M, Swamydas M, Lim JK, Lionakis MS, Kontoyiannis DP. PD-1 blockade improves survival and fungal clearance, induces pro-inflammatory lung cytokines and synergizes with caspofungin in a pulmonary aspergillosis model. J Infect Dis 222(6):989-994, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32432714.
29. Page L, Ullmann AJ, Schadt F, Wurster S, Samnick S. In Vitro Evaluation of Radiolabeled Amphotericin B for Molecular Imaging of Mold Infections. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 64(7), 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32393491.
30. Wurster S, Tatara AM, Albert ND, Ibrahim AS, Heitman J, Lee SC, Shetty AC, McCracken C, Graf KT, Mikos AG, Bruno VM, Kontoyiannis DP. Tornadic Shear Stress Induces a Transient, Calcineurin-Dependent Hypervirulent Phenotype in Mucorales Molds. mBio 11(3), 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32605990.
31. Weis P, Helm J, Page L, Lauruschkat CD, Lazariotou M, Einsele H, Loeffler J, Ullmann AJ, Wurster S. Development and evaluation of a whole blood-based approach for flow cytometric quantification of CD154+ mould-reactive T cells. Med Mycol 58(2):187-196, 2020. PMID: 31095327.
32. Lewis RE, Wurster S, Beyda ND, Albert ND, Kontoyiannis DP. Comparative in vitro pharmacodynamic analysis of isavuconazole, voriconazole, and posaconazole against clinical isolates of aspergillosis, mucormycosis, fusariosis, and phaeohyphomycosis. Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis 95(3):114861, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31427139.
33. Wurster S, Bandi A, Beyda ND, Albert ND, Raman NM, Raad II, Kontoyiannis DP. Drosophila melanogaster as a model to study virulence and azole treatment of the emerging pathogen Candida auris. J Antimicrob Chemother 74(7):1904-1910, 2019. PMID: 31225606.
34. Wurster S, Kumaresan PR, Albert ND, Hauser PJ, Lewis RE, Kontoyiannis DP. Live Monitoring and Analysis of Fungal Growth, Viability, and Mycelial Morphology Using the IncuCyte NeuroTrack Processing Module. mBio 10(3), 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31138745.
35. Kontoyiannis DP, Shah EC, Wurster S, Aitken SL, Graviss L, Raad II, Chemaly RF. Culture-Documented Invasive Mold Infections at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, Pre- and Post-Hurricane Harvey. Open Forum Infect Dis 6(4):ofz138, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31024975.
36. Wurster S, Lewis RE, Albert ND, Kontoyiannis DP. Preexposure to Isavuconazole Increases the Virulence of Mucorales but Not Aspergillus fumigatus in a Drosophila melanogaster Infection Model. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 63(2), 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 30455245.
37. Morton CO, Wurster S, Fliesser M, Ebel F, Page L, Hünniger K, Kurzai O, Schmitt AL, Michel D, Springer J, Einsele H, Loeffler J. Validation of a simplified in vitro Transwell® model of the alveolar surface to assess host immunity induced by different morphotypes of Aspergillus fumigatus. Int J Med Microbiol 308(8):1009-1017, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 30197238.
38. Page L, Weis P, Müller T, Dittrich M, Lazariotou M, Dragan M, Waaga-Gasser AM, Helm J, Dandekar T, Einsele H, Löffler J, Ullmann AJ, Wurster S. Evaluation of Aspergillus and Mucorales specific T-cells and peripheral blood mononuclear cell cytokine signatures as biomarkers of environmental mold exposure. Int J Med Microbiol 308(8):1018-1026, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 30201279.
39. Tatara AM, Wurster S, Lockworth CR, Albert ND, Walsh TJ, Mikos AG, Eisenhoffer GT, Kontoyiannis DP. Immunosuppressed Adult Zebrafish Model of Mucormycosis. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 62(11), 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 30150461.
40. Lauruschkat CD, Wurster S, Page L, Lazariotou M, Dragan M, Weis P, Ullmann AJ, Einsele H, Löffler J. Susceptibility of A. fumigatus-specific T-cell assays to pre-analytic blood storage and PBMC cryopreservation greatly depends on readout platform and analytes. Mycoses 61(8):549-560, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29611226.
41. Decker C, Wurster S, Lazariotou M, Hellmann AM, Einsele H, Ullmann AJ, Löffler J. Analysis of the in vitro activity of human neutrophils against Aspergillus fumigatus in presence of antifungal and immunosuppressive agents. Med Mycol 56(4):514-519, 2018. PMID: 29420763.
42. Belic S, Page L, Lazariotou M, Waaga-Gasser AM, Dragan M, Springer J, Loeffler J, Morton CO, Einsele H, Ullmann AJ, Wurster S. Comparative Analysis of Inflammatory Cytokine Release and Alveolar Epithelial Barrier Invasion in a Transwell® Bilayer Model of Mucormycosis. Front Microbiol 9:3204, 2018. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 30671036.
43. Wurster S, Thielen V, Weis P, Walther P, Elias J, Waaga-Gasser AM, Dragan M, Dandekar T, Einsele H, Löffler J, Ullmann AJ. Mucorales spores induce a proinflammatory cytokine response in human mononuclear phagocytes and harbor no rodlet hydrophobins. Virulence 8(8):1708-1718, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28783439.
44. Wurster S, Weis P, Page L, Helm J, Lazariotou M, Einsele H, Ullmann AJ. Intra- and inter-individual variability of Aspergillus fumigatus reactive T-cell frequencies in healthy volunteers in dependency of mould exposure in residential and working environment. Mycoses 60(10):668-675, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28786508.
45. Wurster S, Weis P, Page L, Lazariotou M, Einsele H, Ullmann AJ. Quantification of A. fumigatus-specific CD154+ T-cells-preanalytic considerations. Med Mycol 55(2):223-227, 2017. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27486216.
46. Hellmann AM, Lother J, Wurster S, Lutz MB, Schmitt AL, Morton CO, Eyrich M, Czakai K, Einsele H, Loeffler J. Human and Murine Innate Immune Cell Populations Display Common and Distinct Response Patterns during Their In Vitro Interaction with the Pathogenic Mold Aspergillus fumigatus. Front Immunol 8:1716, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 29270175.
47. Blankenburg R, Hackert K, Wurster S, Deenen R, Seidman JG, Seidman CE, Lohse MJ, Schmitt JP. β-Myosin heavy chain variant Val606Met causes very mild hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in mice, but exacerbates HCM phenotypes in mice carrying other HCM mutations. Circ Res 115(2):227-37, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 24829265.
48. Hauser S, Ulrich T, Wurster S, Schmitt K, Reichert N, Gaubatz S. Loss of LIN9, a member of the DREAM complex, cooperates with SV40 large T antigen to induce genomic instability and anchorage-independent growth. Oncogene 31(14):1859-68, 2012. e-Pub 2011. PMID: 21860417.
49. Reichert N, Wurster S, Ulrich T, Schmitt K, Hauser S, Probst L, Götz R, Ceteci F, Moll R, Rapp U, Gaubatz S. Lin9, a subunit of the mammalian DREAM complex, is essential for embryonic development, for survival of adult mice, and for tumor suppression. Mol Cell Biol 30(12):2896-908, 2010. e-Pub 2010. PMID: 20404087.

Book Chapters

1. Wurster S, Albert ND, Kontoyiannis DP. Drosophila melanogaster as a Rapid and Reliable In Vivo Infection Model to Study the Emerging Yeast Pathogen Candida auris. In: Methods Mol Biol, 299-316, 2022.