Kilachand Award for crystal ribcage studies of pneumonia
Drs. Hadi Nia and Jay Mizgerd have together received a 2023 Rajen Kilachand Fund for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering award. This provides 3 years of funding, beginning in October 2023, for them and their teams to help illuminate (literally!) the immune response in the lungs against infectious microbes. By studying extracorporeal living lungs inside of a “crystal ribcage,” they will have a truly unprecedented ability to distinguish the lung-resident immune system from the blood-borne systemic immune system. Their goals are to define mechanisms by which recovery from respiratory infections bolster lung-resident and circulating immune defenses against pathogens, and how advanced age disrupts select elements of this immunity to render the elderly prone to pneumonia. More information is available from a story in The Brink about this year’s Kilachand awards.