
Sebastian Wurster, MD, MSc
Department of Infectious Diseases, Infection Control, and Employee Health, Division of Internal Medicine
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Assistant Professor, Department of Infectious Diseases, Division of Internal Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston
Education & Training
Postgraduate Training
2018-2019 | Research Fellowship, Experimental and translational mycology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX |
2014-2018 | Research Fellowship, Clinical research (prophylaxis and treatment of opportunistic infections) and laboratory research in experimental mycology, University Hospital of Wuerzburg, Wuerzburg |
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.