Jondle to present at annual meeting of the American Association of Immunologists
March 11, 2016
Christopher Jondle, a graduate student mentored by Assistant Professor Jyotika Sharma,
Ph.D., in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, had his abstract accepted for an
oral presentation at Immunology 2016, the annual meeting of the American Association
of Immunologists (AAI) to be held in Seattle in May. The AAI will provide partial
support for his travel to the meeting.
The title of his abstract is “Impact of Klebsiella pneumoniae on efferocytosis of polymorphonuclear cells.” Klebsiella is a type of bacteria that can cause different types of infections, including pneumonia,
bloodstream infections, wound or surgical site infections, and meningitis. Jondle’s
research looks at how Klebsiella affects the ability of polymorphonuclear cells (the main cells involved in the body’s
immune reaction) to ingest and remove dead cells from the bloodstream.
“The importance of this work can be assessed by the fact that Chris was also invited
for an oral presentation to the prestigious Gordon Research Conference held at the
University of New England in Biddeford, Maine, in June 2015,” said Sharma. “I feel
proud to see that our students are working on cutting-edge science that is being recognized
nationally and internationally.”
Jondle also has recently published in the AAI’s peer-reviewed Journal of Immunology
a paper on a separate research project. That paper, titled “Macrophage Galactose-Type
Lectin-1 Deficiency Is Associated with Increased Neutrophilia and Hyperinflammation
in Gram-Negative Pneumonia,” with Jondle as first author, describes the role of a
C-type lectin receptor (CLR), MGL-1 in orchestrating host immune response in bacterial
pneumonia and sepsis. This is the first report of MGL-1 function in sepsis. Pneumonic
sepsis is a deadly immune disorder frequently associated with whole-body inflammation
and currently has no therapies.
Sharma is internationally recognized for her research on sepsis, a life-threatening
medical condition that results from a systemic inflammatory response by the body to
fend off a severe infection or to recover from a traumatic injury. There are currently
no therapies for this condition. Since joining UND in 2011, Sharma’s work on this
area of research has been continuously funded by grants from the American Heart Association
and the National Institutes of Health, the leading funding agency in the United States.
In November 2015, the National Institutes of Health granted $1.7 million to Sharma
to examine the most common type of infection-fighting white blood cell—neutrophils—that
are the first responders for combatting bacterial infections like pneumonia. The five-year
R01 grant is the highest level of research supported by the NIH.
The AAI has invited Sharma to chair a session at Immunology 2016, where she will
serve as a Block Symposium Chair for the Bacterial and Parasitic Infection and Immunity
session.
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