Host Immune Response to Naegleria fowleri

N. fowleri utilizes an olfactory route to invade the CNS and cause a devastatingly lethal form of meningoencephalitis. We seek to understand which innate and adaptive immune mechanisms are protective, why they ultimately fail, and how we can use this information to inform new translational solutions.

A number of pathogens are known to breach the olfactory epithelium and gain access to the central nervous system. We are interested in understanding how pathogens, viruses in particular, are able to infect cells within the olfactory epithelium and how this can have long term consequences for olfaction and CNS inflammation.