Congratulations to Meihong Deng, MD, who received a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for her project “Role of Toll-like Receptor 9 in Fibroblastic Reticular Cell-based Therapy for Intraabdominal Sepsis.”
Intra-abdominal infection-induced sepsis is a common clinical problem leading to high mortality, and there are currently no effective treatments. Fibroblastic reticular cells (FRCs) are important regulators of immune cell function that can detect infection and coordinate immune responses, and experimental therapies in mice using FRCs have successfully reduced mortality from an intra-abdominal infection. Dr. Deng’s project will help determine how distinct FRC subsets control the body’s response to overwhelming infection and also identify ways to improve the effectiveness of experimental FRC treatments, which will help advance the discovery of new treatments for sepsis in humans that will reduce morbidity and mortality.