Emma Stapleton, PhD, research assistant professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Occupational Medicine, earned a one-year, $15,000 Environmental Health Sciences Research Center (EHSRC) Career Development Award (CDA). Contingent on her progress in Elucidating the role of IL-18 in airway epithelial response to inhaled antigens, the funding will be extended to a second year.
Stapleton’s research will deepen her understanding of Interleukin-18 (IL-18), a protein produced by a variety of cells in the body, in the airway. IL-18 is a potent inflammatory molecule involved in many hyper-inflammatory (and pulmonary) disease states, including autoimmune disease. It is secreted in response to environmental exposures and helps protect against intracellular pathogens, such as bacteria and viruses. In excess, however, it can contribute to pathology. It is implicated in autoimmune disease, for example.
“We will also study whether a downstream adaptor protein, MyD88 [myeloid differentiation primary response protein 88], is involved in functional changes that we have observed,” Stapleton said. “These results will provide critical information on the airway’s response to inhaled aerosol, which is relevant to a broad population, given increasing environmental exposures, such as wildfire smoke.”
This CDA is funded by the EHSRC through the University of Iowa’s National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) P30, an NIH Environmental Health Sciences Core Centers grant that the institution has sustained for more than 30 years. The University of Iowa is one of only 20 core centers in the country, and uniquely focuses on advancing and translating research that addresses environmental health problems across the urban-rural continuum.
“I am very grateful for the EHSRC’s prior and current support,” Stapleton said. “Their previous pilot funding led us to appreciate the importance of IL-18 in environmental exposures. I would also like to thank my mentors in the pulmonary division, especially Alejandro Comellas, who has been very constructive and critical to my career.”