Team of Investigators Awarded $3.5 Million to Study Mechanism of Sepsis

A team of investigators led by Minsoo Kim, Ph.D. (Department of Microbiology & Immunology, UR), BME Chair Richard Waugh, Ph.D. (Department of Biomedical Engineering, UR) and Jonathan Reichner, Ph.D. (Department of Surgery, Brown University) in collaboration with James McGrath, Ph.D. (Department of Biomedical Engineering, UR), and Anthony Pietropaoli, M.D. (Department of Medicine, Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care, UR) recently received a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health for just over 3.5 million dollars.

This grant is in support of their research to understand the mechanisms of damage to the endothelium during sepsis. Sepsis, which is thought to affect over 1 million Americans each year, is one of the leading causes of death in the United States, accounting for over 250,000 deaths annually. It involves whole-body inflammation in response to a severe infection. Damage to the vascular endothelium resulting from the immune response to infection is a key step that can lead to impaired blood flow, organ failure, and death. Their research will result in improved understanding of the mechanisms leading to endothelial damage and will enable development of more effective therapeutic strategies to treat this growing threat to public health.