The experiments were independently repeated three times. Authors’ information Mauricio Alvarez, Yong Luo and Tamika Burns are graduates of the Albert Einstein College of medicine. Arturo Casadevall is chairman of the microbiology & immunology department at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Liise-anne Pirofski is professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology and is chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Einstein. Acknowledgements We thank Michael Cammer and the

Analytical Imaging Facility of Albert Einstein College of Medicine for aiding in the acquisition of images. NIH awards AI033142-11, AI033774-11, and HL059842-08 supported this work. Electronic supplementary material Additional file 1: Replication of C. neoformans within human peripheral blood monocytes. The data MI-503 datasheet provided represents intracellular replication of C. neoformans in HPBM cells at rates similar to extracellular C. neoformans (every 2 to 3 h). (AVI 2 MB) Additional file 2: Cell to cell spread of C. neoformans in human peripheral blood monocytes. Cell to cell spread was witnessed following ingestion and subsequent imaging of infected HPBMs, we witnessed that C. neoformans also spread from host human monocyte to another uninfected one. (AVI 2 MB) References 1. Casadevall A, Perfect

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