Bruce Klein, MD, recently received a new R21 award in the amount of $408,030 for his project entitled, “Hybrid histidine kinase: a drug target and path to anti-fungal drug development”. In this 2-year grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH/NIAID), Dr. Klein and his team propose to discover the mode of action of anti-fungal drugs that require group III hybrid histidine kinases (HHKs). HHKs regulate the HOG (high-osmolarity glycerol) pathway and are conserved in fungi and absent in mammals, making them an ideal drug target. Fungicides that require the HOG pathway to kill pathogens are used in agriculture, but are too toxic for use in human patients. The drug target of these agricultural fungicides is unclear and represents a gap in our knowledge with significant implications. An understanding of the actual drug target will unveil a new path to antifungal drug development for patients. Congratulations, Bruce!