Marlene Starr
University of Kentucky, KY·Medicine & Clinical Research
Sepsis is the body's damaging, whole-system response to an infection. It is the most common reason patients are admitted to intensive care and the most expensive condition treated in US hospitals, and apart from supportive care there is no specific therapy for it.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Microbiology & Immunology
Physiology
- Topics
sepsis
obesity
immunometabolism
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2029
What they work on
- Compare sepsis pathophysiology in patients stratified by obesity status, with a focus on immune alterations, using samples collected from these patient populations.
- Define how obesity changes immune cell function and metabolism, the way immune cells produce and use energy, in a validated murine model of sepsis and in patient samples.
- Determine whether the obesity-associated shifts in immune cell phenotype, function and metabolism are responsible for the improved survival seen during sepsis.
More about the research
Clinical studies have turned up a paradox: patients with obesity tend to survive sepsis at higher rates than patients without it. Why that protection exists is unknown, and understanding it could point toward treatments that help everyone with sepsis.
Why it matters
Sepsis carries high mortality and long-term disability, and clinicians have no treatment aimed specifically at it. Identifying the immune and metabolic changes that appear to help patients with obesity survive could reveal targets for new therapies that could be given to any patient with sepsis, potentially reducing intensive-care deaths and healthcare costs.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Alexendar Perez
University of California-San Francisco, CA·Microbiology & Immunology·Early-career
Chart how de-repression of transposable elements in immune cells varies with patient age and with sepsis, testing whether it accompanies decline in immune quality.
Li-Wei H Lehman
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Estimate what would happen under different treatment strategies for neuromuscular blockade and steroids in ARDS by emulating target trials in intensive care records, using g-methods that correct for the fact that sicker patients receive more aggressive care.
Matthieu Legrand
University of California-San Francisco, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Test whether norepinephrine, which constricts vessels and strengthens the heartbeat, prevents postoperative acute kidney injury better than phenylephrine, a pure vasoconstrictor, in adults undergoing major non-cardiac surgery under general anesthesia.
The school
University of Kentucky: 34 labs on PI Pages, $528M a year on research, 319 research doctorates a year.
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