Gut-Lung Axis: Gut microbiome control of lung injury responses in mice

Our primary research focus is broadly on the interface between sterile and infectious inflammation and how the innate immune system is able to distinguish between the two and respond appropriately.  Given my clinical interest in trauma anesthesia, and specifically the airway, respiratory and hemodynamic management of critically-ill trauma patients, the lab's research focuses on lung injury in trauma and the pathophysiology of lung ischemia reperfusion (IR) injury. We are interested in how damage markers are generated in IR injury, how these are sensed and how infiltrating immune inflammatory cells are targeted to the lung. Dissecting the individual aspects of these processes will provide important insights towards improving the way trauma and other patients with IR injury are clinically cared for.

Furthermore, by understanding the molecular and cellular basis of lung IR injury, we hope to gain insights into how this process interfaces with coexisting or superimposed infections that are encountered by sick trauma patients in the ICU. These pathogenic, commonly bacterial, nosocomial infections often target the lung with devastating consequences given the relative immune paralysis that often accompanies severe trauma.