Amali Samarasinghe
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Microbiology & Immunology
Pneumonia happens when lung inflammation and injury get out of control, often after a virus or bacterium invades. Streptococcus pneumoniae (Spn), also called the pneumococcus, causes lower respiratory tract infections and hospitalizations in adults.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
eosinophils
Streptococcus pneumoniae
pneumococcus
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2028
What they work on
- Determine how eosinophils, allergy-associated white blood cells, take up and kill Streptococcus pneumoniae inside and outside the cell, and how taking up the bacteria changes the eosinophils' physiology and features.
- Test whether eosinophils in allergic airways reduce bacterial load and protect the host during influenza A virus and pneumococcus co-infection, building on findings that this protection is lost in eosinophil-deficient mice.
- Identify pathways by which eosinophil-pneumococcus interactions influence surrounding leukocytes that defend the lung's mucosal lining during viral-bacterial co-infection.
More about the research
This includes people with chronic lung conditions such as asthma. The bacterium is especially dangerous when it strikes alongside influenza A virus (IAV). Eosinophils are white blood cells best known for driving allergic inflammation, and they are usually viewed as end-stage damaging cells. The lab's work suggests they can instead help protect the lungs during infection.
Why it matters
Bacterial pneumonia on top of influenza causes severe illness and excess deaths, and pneumococci also hospitalize adults with chronic lung conditions like asthma. Revealing how eosinophils help clear pneumococci may point to new therapeutic targets for treating bacterial co-infections during influenza in people with allergic asthma.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Lisa Spencer
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus, CO·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine how gut-resident eosinophils hold back the spread of type 2 immunity, using mouse lines that lack key receptors and signaling molecules only in eosinophils, in models with and without an allergen.
Daren Knoell
University of Nebraska Medical Center, NE·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine how loss of the zinc transporter ZIP8 alters the makeup of myeloid immune cells in the lung in mice, and what that means for clearing Streptococcus pneumoniae and for survival.
Jeffrey Weiser
New York University, NY·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine how IL-1 and IL-17 signaling, two immune messenger pathways, recruit and activate the cells that take up and clear Streptococcus pneumoniae from the upper airway, using mice lacking the IL-1 or IL-17 receptor.
The school
University of Wisconsin-Madison: 91 labs on PI Pages, $1.9B a year on research, 854 research doctorates a year.
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