Feet Home To More Than 100 Types of Fungus

From: Dermatology Daily

The Los Angeles Times (5/23, Netburn) reports, "At least 80 types of fungi reside on a typical person's heel, along with 60 between the toes and 40 on the toenail." In fact, "the feet are home to more than 100 types of fungus, more than any other area of the human body, according to a study published Wednesday by the journal Nature."
On it's "All Things Considered" program and on its "Shots" blog, NPR (5/22, Stein) reports that the "census of the fungi that inhabit different places on our skin" is "part of a big scientific push to better understand the microbes that live in and on our bodies. 'This is the first study of fungi, which are yeast and other molds that live on the human body,' says Julie Segre, of the National Human Genome Research Institute, who led the survey."
The NBC News (5/23, Fox) "The Body Odd" blog reports that "one family" of fungus called Malassezia "covers most of our bodies." HealthDay (5/23, Norton) reports, "The new study...took advantage of DNA-sequencing technology to analyze the fungi on 10 healthy volunteers' skin." Also covering the story are BBC News (5/23, Briggs) and Medscape (5/23, Laidman).