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Le Bonheur Researcher Amali Samarasinghe, MS, PhD, has been awarded $2.3 million from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to continue building on her research into the protective role of eosinophils, a type of white blood cell, in allergic airways. Samarasinghe is director of the Asthma Research Program and Plough Foundation Chair of Excellence in Pediatrics at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

Le Bonheur Researcher Amali Samarasinghe, MS, PhD, recently received $2.3 million to continue her lifelong inquiry into the protective functions of the immune system against respiratory infections.

Previous research from Samarasinghe has shown that a heightened presence of eosinophils in the airway, which occurs after an asthma attack, naturally has a protective effect against influenza A (IAV) infection. Previous studies also showed preliminary data that eosinophilic asthma was protective during co-infection with IAV and Streptococcus pneumoniae (Spn). This new research will investigate the mechanisms and outcomes of interactions between eosinophils and Spn and how these interactions impact surrounding white blood cells during co-infection.

This research is unique because it investigates eosinophils as an existing first line of defense against a prominent bacteria instead of as white blood cell that reacts in response to infection.

“These studies will have a broad impact on eosinophil biology, on our appreciation of host-pathogen interactions in allergic asthma and may offer novel therapeutic targets to treat bacterial co-infections during influenza in allergic hosts,” says Samarasinghe.

This study builds on Samarasinghe’s lifelong inquiry into elucidating the protective functions of the immunological system, specifically eosinophils, against respiratory infections based on the observation that asthmatics were less likely to suffer from severe disease than non-asthmatics during the swine flu pandemic of 2009.