Libero Ajello

[1] As one of the first researchers to investigate histoplasmosis and coccidioidomycosis in the United States, he and made valuable contributions to the comprehensive field of veterinary and human fungal disease diagnosis.

Before pursuing a doctorate at Columbia University, Ajello worked for the Armed Forces during World War II conducting a series of studies on tinea pedis, a skin infection of the feet caused by dermatophyte fungi.

The increased incidence of fungal diseases during World War II drove the beginning of the investigation of thousands of serologic tests for the diagnosis of histoplasmosis, coccidioidomycosis, and blastomycosis by the Armed Forces.

The government established the Kansas City Field Station as part of the CDC to study non-tuberculosis-related calcified pulmonary disease in the Mississippi-Ohio river valley area.

Ajello and collaborators' discoveries about Coccidioides immits, the fungal agent responsible for Valley Fever, and Histoplasma capsulatum changed medical and public health practices throughout the world.

[5][3] In the 1950s, aiming to improve the identification of Coccidioides immits, he investigated different methods for pathogen isolation from soil and clinical samples, which often failed due to overgrowth of saprophytic fungi and bacteria.

[3] In 1967, Ajello and Cheng studied the morphology of T. mentagrophytes and named its perfect state, Arthroderma benhamiae, in honor of Benham, a previous researcher that investigated the fungi.