New Grant to Study Extracellular Vesicles

JANUARY 21, 2022

We received the NOA for our first grant to study the role of extracellular vesicles during plague! We are excited to work with our good friend (and neutrophil mentor) Dr. Silvia Uriarte.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are released by cells to mediate cell-to-cell communication and contribute to establishing the proper immune response during infection. Our goal is to define how Yersinia pestis alters EV production by immune cells to disrupt cell communication and inhibit the recruitment of immune cells to the site of infection. Because inducing inflammation during early stages of plague can improve the therapeutic window for a patient, defining mechanisms used by Y. pestis to inhibit inflammation is not only important for our understanding the pathogenesis of the bacterium, but will help us to identify new approaches to improve current plague therapy.