Life and health

Functioning gonadotropic adenoma

Functioning gonadotropic adenoma, also called functioning gonadotroph adenoma (FGA), is a rare benign pituitary tumor secreting active FSH or LH, causing ovarian hyperstimulation in women and testicular enlargement in men.

Funcusvermis

Funcusvermis gilmorei, the Funky Worm, is the oldest known caecilian, a Late Triassic (~220 Ma) limbless stem amphibian from Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, described in Nature in 2023 from the most abundant caecilian bonebed known.

Funda Meric-Bernstam

Funda Meric-Bernstam is a physician-scientist and surgical oncologist who chairs Investigational Cancer Therapeutics, MD Anderson's Phase I program, known for antibody-drug conjugate trials and precision oncology.

Fundal height

Fundal height (symphysis-fundal height, SFH) is the tape-measured distance from the pubic bone to the top of the uterus, used after 24 weeks to screen fetal growth; roughly 1 cm per gestational week, with limited sensitivity.

Fundoplication

Fundoplication is an operation in which the upper stomach is wrapped around the lower esophagus to reinforce the sphincter against reflux, the main surgery for GERD and hiatal hernia.

Fundus albipunctatus

Fundus albipunctatus (OMIM 136880) is a rare autosomal recessive congenital stationary night blindness with white midperipheral retinal dots and delayed dark adaptation, usually caused by RDH5 mutations; distinct from progressive retinitis punctata albescens.

Fundus autofluorescence imaging

Fundus autofluorescence (FAF) imaging is a noninvasive ophthalmic technique recording the fundus's natural fluorescence, used to assess retinal health in macular degeneration and inherited retinal dystrophies.

Fundus fluorescein angiography

Fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA) is an ophthalmic imaging method that injects sodium fluorescein intravenously and photographs the retina over time to visualize blood flow, capillary perfusion, and barrier leakage.

Fundus photography

Fundus photography is an ophthalmic imaging method that uses a fundus camera to photograph the retina, optic nerve, and macula, detecting diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, and macular degeneration.

Fundus pulverulentus

Fundus pulverulentus is the rarest pattern dystrophy of the retinal pigment epithelium, first described by Slezak and Homer in 1969, marked by granular coarse RPE mottling of the macula, strong pseudoxanthoma elasticum association, and reported choroidal neovascularization.

Fungaemia

Fungaemia (fungemia), also candidaemia, is the presence of fungi in the blood, usually Candida yeasts, affecting immunosuppressed, catheterized, or postoperative patients; diagnosed by blood culture and treated with echinocandins or amphotericin B.

Fungal aspartyl proteases

Fungal aspartyl proteases are secreted, pepsin-family (A1) aspartic peptidases produced by fungi, including aspergillopepsin and mucorpepsin, active at pH 3–4 and used industrially as milk-clotting rennet substitutes.

Fungal biology

Fungal biology, also called mycology, is the discipline studying fungi from unicellular yeasts to multicellular forms. It spans genomics, evolution, pathogenesis, ecology, and biotechnology, with about 1 billion years of fungal evolution and thousands of sequenced genomes.

Fungal cell

Fungal cell: the eukaryotic cell of kingdom Fungi, with a chitin and beta-glucan cell wall, no chloroplasts, glycogen storage, heterotrophic absorption, turgor-driven hyphal growth, and septal pores; distinct from plant and animal cells.

Oct 20, 2026

Fungal encephalitis

Fungal encephalitis, or fungal meningoencephalitis, is brain inflammation from fungal CNS infection, most often cryptococcal in HIV and immunocompromised patients; mortality reaches 24–47% at 10 weeks despite amphotericin-based therapy.

Fungal Genetics Stock Center

The Fungal Genetics Stock Center is a biological resource center founded in 1960 that preserves and distributes genetically characterized strains of filamentous fungi for research.

Fungal keratitis

Fungal keratitis (mycotic keratitis, keratomycosis) is a fungal cornea infection causing blindness and eye loss, mainly from Fusarium, Aspergillus, and Candida after trauma or contact lens wear; treated with topical natamycin.

Fungal ligninase

Fungal ligninases are extracellular oxidative enzymes, produced chiefly by white-rot fungi, that degrade lignin, the aromatic polymer in plant cell walls. The term originally named lignin peroxidase, discovered in 1983, and covers laccases and manganese peroxidases.

Fungal meningitis

Fungal meningitis: rare, life-threatening fungal infection of the brain and spinal cord membranes, usually in immunocompromised people; caused by Cryptococcus, Candida, Histoplasma, Blastomyces, Coccidioides; treated with IV antifungals.

Fungal myositis

Fungal myositis is a rare skeletal muscle inflammation caused by fungal infection, most often Candida, in immunocompromised people, treated with antifungal drugs and sometimes surgery.

Oct 20, 2026

Fungal pneumonia

Fungal pneumonia is lung inflammation caused by a fungus rather than bacteria or viruses, most often affecting people with weakened immune systems and treated with antifungal medicines.

Fungal prions

Fungal prions are heritable protein conformations in fungi, passed through cytoplasm rather than DNA, whose study gave the first genetic proof that proteins can be infectious.

Fungal spore

Fungal spore: microscopic embryo-less propagule specialized for dispersal and dormant survival; passive spread by air, water, animals; desiccation dormancy; about 50 million tons airborne yearly.

Fungi in art

Fungi in art: mushrooms and mycelium as subject, medium, and material, from Mary Banning's 19th-century watercolors and Somerset House's 2020 show to bio art by Spačal, Bates, and Schubert and mycelium architecture like Mycotecture and Hy-Fi.

Fungia

Fungia (mushroom corals, Fungiidae) is a Lamarck 1801 genus of solitary, free-living Indo-Pacific stony corals; type species F. fungites, attached juveniles, mobile adults up to about 31–50 cm, with a much-revised taxonomy.

Fungicide

Fungicide: agents controlling fungal plant diseases, from Bordeaux mixture (1885) to modern FRAC-coded single-site chemistry; managed by mode-of-action rotation to delay resistance.

Fungiculture

Fungiculture, or mushroom cultivation, is the controlled growing of fungi for food and materials. Key facts: Tang Dynasty wood ear logs, 17th-century French Agaricus bisporus, agricultural-waste substrates, spent substrate reuse, and growing automation.

Fungiidae

Fungiidae, the mushroom corals (Dana, 1846), is a family of Indo-Pacific stony corals (Scleractinia) of mostly solitary, free-living, unattached polyps; about 55 species in 17 genera, revised by Hoeksema and molecular phylogenetics.

Fungus

Fungus (plural fungi): kingdom of heterotrophic eukaryotes with chitinous cell walls, closer to animals than plants; over 2 million species, mostly undescribed; decomposers, mycorrhizal symbionts, and sources of food and antibiotics.