Amali E. Samarasinghe, PhD, assistant professor in the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s Department of Pediatrics in the College of Medicine, has received a $1,919,402 award from the National Institutes of Health. Samarasinghe will investigate the mechanisms by which certain white blood cells regulate antiviral immune responses against influenza A virus infections. 

According to research, Influenza A virus infections have claimed over 50 million lives worldwide during epidemics and pandemics. During the 2009 influenza pandemic, patients with asthma proved less likely to suffer from severe influenza than non-asthmatics. While biomedical researchers grapple with this mystery, Samarasinghe’s lab was able to successfully recreate these findings in mice, and discovered that high numbers of a type of white blood cells, called eosinophils, correlated with reduced viral burden in the lungs of asthmatics. 

 “Using our innovative model, we aim to show that the presence of eosinophils actually works to the advantage of acute asthmatics that are infected with the flu virus,” said Samarasinghe, who has been with UTHSC’s Department of Pediatrics since 2012.