Anny Zhou
University of Virginia, VA·Microbiology & Immunology
Catching a respiratory virus as a young child raises the risk of developing asthma later, and in people who already have asthma a virus can trigger a severe flare. Asthma affects about 17 million people in the U.S.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Genetics
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
Gasdermin B
asthma
rhinovirus
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Nov 2026
What they work on
- Dissect the molecular mechanism by which GSDMB, an asthma-linked gene on chromosome 17q21, promotes interferon signaling and the expression of interferon-stimulated genes in human airway epithelial cells treated with RNA viruses or the viral RNA mimic poly(I:C).
- Establish a rhinovirus infection model in human bronchial epithelial cells carrying opposing GSDMB genotypes to test whether higher GSDMB prolongs the inflammatory response after infection.
- Determine the consequences of prolonged and repeated respiratory virus infection in mice engineered for conditional, inducible expression of human GSDMB in airway epithelial cells, testing whether it drives airway inflammation and asthma-like disease.
More about the research
Why some children are hit much harder than others appears to depend partly on their genes. This project investigates one gene, GSDMB (Gasdermin B), that sits in a stretch of chromosome 17 repeatedly linked to childhood asthma — especially in children who had earlier respiratory infections — and asks how it shapes the airway's antiviral response.
Why it matters
Explaining how GSDMB turns a childhood respiratory infection into lasting asthma risk could identify a target for drugs or other strategies that prevent severe asthma flares in genetically susceptible children. It may also help explain why antiviral immune responses in the airway vary so much between individuals.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Xiaoyang Hua
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX·Microbiology & Immunology
Define the immune mechanisms by which a virus infecting only the nose recruits antigen-presenting cells to the lungs and boosts innate and adaptive lung immunity, a process called nose-lung cross talk.
Stefan Worgall
Weill Medical College of Cornell University, NY·Medicine & Clinical Research
Measure sphingolipid production in children with asthma during and after rhinovirus-triggered asthma attacks, using sphingolipid levels in nasal fluid and blood and gene activity in nasal cells.
Karen Swanson
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC·Microbiology & Immunology
Define the mechanism by which the human protein STING, normally an antiviral sensor, acts as a host factor supporting genome replication of rhinovirus species RV-A and RV-C but not RV-B.
The school
University of Virginia: 43 labs on PI Pages, $814M a year on research, 413 research doctorates a year.
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