Zhaozhong Zhu, ScD
Massachusetts General Hospital
Research Project:
Integrated Role of Airway-Gut Microbiome and Metabolomics on the Mechanism and Heterogeneity of Childhood Asthma
Grant Awarded:
- Innovation Award
Research Topics:
- basic biologic mechanisms
- computational biology
- epidemiology
- immunology immunotherapy
- public health
- risk factors
Research Disease:
- asthma
Asthma is a major public health problem that affects seven million children in the U.S. While epidemiological studies have identified risk factors (e.g., severe bronchiolitis) for childhood asthma, the underlying mechanisms of asthma remain poorly understood. This major knowledge gap has hindered efforts to develop targeted strategies for asthma prevention. Recent evidence indicates that the community of both microbes that live in our airway and gut and their produced small molecules called metabolites can affect our immune and metabolic systems and associate with differential risks of asthma. In an ongoing racially/ethnically-diverse cohort of U.S. children, we will comprehensively study this airway and gut microbial community and immune response in children who develop asthma (and its subtypes). This research will not only gain knowledge on how the microbial community interacts with our bodies to shape asthma risk but also offer novel approaches for developing subtype-specific strategies for asthma. The basic mechanisms that we will uncover in this high-risk cohort of infants with bronchiolitis may be relevant to larger populations of children.
Page last updated: October 3, 2023
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