Amanda Jamieson, PhD awarded (DARPA) Young Faculty Award (YFA)

Amanda Jamieson was awarded a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award (YFA). Her grant entitled: “Influence of lung microbiome on tolerance to pulmonary infections” was funded in the “Microbial Mediation of Host Tolerance to Infection” research area. Her CPVB COBRE pilot project focused on how influenza A virus (IAV)/bacterial coinfection of the lung affected host tolerance/resilience mechanisms of pulmonary endothelial cells. This grant further explores the concept that the ability to survive a given infection is determined by two main factors, pathogen clearance and host resilience/tolerance. Influenza A virus infections are a significant threat to global health, causing an estimated 500,000 deaths annually. Coinfection with IAV and bacteria significantly increases morbidity and mortality over viral infection alone. In addition to the complex interactions the human body has with multiple microbial pathogens, there are an estimated 100 trillion microbial cells, known as the human microbiome, residing throughout the body. The objective of this study is to understand how resilience responses to IAV are altered by lung microbiota, with the end goal of developing new treatment options to complex lung infections.