Edouard Drouhet

Edouard Drouhet (June 18, 1919 – January 1, 2000) was a physician, biologist, and medical mycologist who played a key role in understanding how anti-fungal agents such as ketoconazole and amphotericin-B can be used as therapeutic treatments in humans with superficial or deep-seated mycoses.

He was one of the founding members in the International Society for Human and Animal Mycology (ISHAM) and the French Society of Medical Mycology.

Personal life

Drouhet was born in Bârlad, Romania into a family of French descent that also included Charles Drouhet. His grandfather was a medical doctor in Blaye, France. In this position, he formed the National Reference Center for Mycoses and Antifungals. Then, in 1981 he would take the place of Grabriel Segretain as Director of the Mycology Unit at Pasteur Institute until he retired in 1987.

After retirement, Drouhet continued in his involvement in the scientific community by serving as the Chief Editor for the Journal of Medical Mycology until he fell ill in 1999.

Towards the end of his career, he was able to publish and share his identification of a new thermally dimorphic fungal species, Emmonsia pasteuriana, which was first cultured on a woman with HIV from Italy.

Notable work

Prior to Drouhet's influence, Institut Pasteur mainly studied fungal pathogens on botany. Since then, Drouhet had opened up the field to include human and animal fungal pathogens as well. Drouhet's work looked into diseases of opportunistic fungi pathogens in humans and animals and he was the first in France to test the antifungal agents. He extensively studied the serum of fungal antigens such as fluconazole, ketoconazole, amphotericin-B, fluorocytosine, and itraconazole which helped standardize the medical dosage and treatments for patients.

In 1978, Drouhet published a textbook called "Fungal Antigens – Isolation, Purification and Detection" which was conceived after a symposium on fungal antigens. The book goes in depth of chemical techniques, methods of diagnosing infections, and includes studies on Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans, Aspergillus fumigatus, Coccidiodes immitis, and many more contributed by a collection of other authors.