Judy Smith Awarded American Lung Association Grant

Judith A. Smith, MD, PhD
Judith A. Smith, MD, PhD

Congratulations to Judith Smith, MD, PhD, who was recently awarded an Allergic Respiratory Diseases Award from the American Lung Association (ALA) for her project entitled, “Regulation of rhinovirus by the asthma-associated 17q21 locus gene ORMDL3.” This 2-year grant, in the amount of $75,000 per year, was selected through the highly competitive research program, and her application was considered outstanding by the ALA Research Committee. The project aims to determine which function of ORMDL3, a gene implicated in asthma development, controls rhinovirus replication using drugs and genetic approaches, and begin to address which step of the viral lifecycle is affected by ORMDL3. Greater understanding of how ORMDL3 regulates rhinovirus replication will also have therapeutic ramifications.