BRC-BIO: Defining the metabolic and molecular responses of host-viral-fungal interactions

About This Grant

Microbes existing within a host, whether permanent or transient, can influence the host’s health and fitness via shifts in microbe-host interactions, which can provide an opportunity for other microbes to invade. This research project seeks to understand how viruses alter the lung microenvironment to allow other organisms, specifically fungi, to establish and grow. The proposed research will not only expand our understanding of viral-host-fungal interactions, but will also benefit human health by providing information that may result in better interventions for and control of such infections. This project includes an education program that will expose undergraduate students early to STEM research through a first-year seminar course. The award also provides research opportunities for undergraduates recruited from this course, and training opportunities for both graduate and undergraduate students interested in careers in STEM fields at the University of California, Merced. Viruses, the most abundant biological entity on earth, impact nearly all organisms (e.g., microbes, plants, animals) through their capacity to alter the microenvironments of the organisms with which they interact. Studies of multiple viral-host systems have demonstrated that viruses alter the metabolic profile of the host microenvironment, thereby influencing other microbes within that system, including allowing invasion by organisms such as the fungus Aspergillus fumigatus. The investigators will use metabolomic and molecular approaches to determine the microenvironmental changes and molecular responses of viral-host-fungal interactions involving influenza virus and A. fumigatus in the murine lung. Specifically, the project’s research objectives are to: 1) identify the virus-host mediated microenvironment alterations that allow for A. fumigatus growth, 2) define the molecular adaptions that allow A. fumigatus to grow in the viral-host environment, and 3) determine whether the viral-host-fungal interaction changes over time. Results from this research will contribute to understanding the rapidly evolving field of viral-host-fungal interactions by deciphering viral- and fungal-mediated strategies that shape and allow these interactions to occur. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.