Stephania A. Cormier, Ph.D.

• Neonatal Respiratory Immunology
• Respiratory Tract Viral Infection
• Inhalation Exposures and Host Defense
• Genome-Environment Interactions in Airways Disease

Research Description:

The occurrence of inflammatory respiratory diseases, such as asthma and COPD, have increased dramatically in the past decade. This rate of increase is more than can be accounted for by genetic drift alone and suggests a role for the environment. Many hypotheses attempt to explain this phenomenon by citing better hygiene, environmental pollution, viral respiratory tract infections, and loss of some protective effect found in a rural lifestyle as culprits in disease initiation and exacerbation.

The main goal of my laboratory is to determine if exposure during early neonatal life to environmental factors (i.e. allergens, pollutants, and respiratory viruses) leads to predisposition, development of, or exacerbation of respiratory disease in the adult. We believe that adult respiratory diseases result, in part, from environmental impacts that occur during a critical phase of immuno-maturation. In the short term, we seek: (1) to define the cellular and molecular changes in the pulmonary microenvironment following gestational and/or neonatal exposure to allergens; (2) to determine if urban pollutants (e.g. particulates such as diesel exhaust particles), initiate cellular/molecular events in the developing lung which lead to increased susceptibility to airways disease later in life; and (3) to define the impact of respiratory viral infection on pulmonary pathophysiology of neonatal mice.

The long-term objective of my laboratory is to realize the initiators of the immune and pathophysiological changes that occur during the early stages of pulmonary airways disease and ultimately to develop effective interventions and therapies.

Research Funding:

• Principal Investigator on one NIH grant (Outstanding New Environmental Scientist Award; NIEHS-ONES)
• Co-investigator on two NIH grants. (PI: Barry Dellinger and PI: Konstantin Kousoulas)
• Mentor on an NIH COBRE Program (PI: Daniel Kapusta)