Harish Narasimhan Awarded F31 Research Grant

Harish Narasimhan, MHS, a microbiology PhD candidate in the Jie Sun Lab, was awarded a $121,136 F31 grant to study age-associated features responsible for the development and maintenance of chronic pulmonary sequelae following acute respiratory viral infections. His overall hypothesis for his research is that CD8+ TRM cells persisting in aged lungs following viral pneumonia contribute to chronic IL-1β release and thus impair Krt8+ transitional cell differentiation to promote dysplastic lung repair. Understanding this immune-epithelial progenitor interaction would deepen fundamental understanding of the role of the immune system in alveolar regeneration and lung repair. Moreover, the proposed studies would pave the way for developing therapeutic strategies to promote functional repair of aged lungs following severe viral pneumonia. Read more about Narasimhan’s research.