Drs. James Gern with Co-Investigator Dr. Christine Seroogy were recently awarded a U19 Program Project Grant by the National Institutes of Health – National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH-NIAID) to test the hypothesis that farm-related microbes promote immune development to limit the severity of viral respiratory illnesses in early childhood. Ultimately, the investigators hope to identify microbes that might be useful in the prevention of viral illnesses of childhood.
This is a collaborative project with Dr. Matthew Keifer at the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation, and the program also includes two basic science projects led by Drs. Ann Palmenberg and John Yin, who will investigate basic mechanisms of viral respiratory illnesses, and a virology core led by Dr. Yury Bochkov.