Therapeutic targeting of altered airway microbiota to prevent lung damage and pneumonia in mice with cystic fibrosis-like lung disease (B08*)

• Subject Area: Microbial Ecology and Applied Microbiology
• Term: from 2018 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 114933180

Alterations in airway microbiota are associated with severity of lung disease in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). However, the role of disordered microbiota in the in vivo pathogenesis and as therapeutic target in CF lung disease remains unknown. In this project, we will therefore use a unique mouse model of CF lung disease and state-of-the-art next generation sequencing i) to determine the role of altered airway microbiota in CF-like airway inflammation and structural lung damage; ii) to test if therapeutic targeting of abnormal microbiota can reduce these abnormalities; and iii) to test if such a therapeutic approach can reduce susceptibility to Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection characteristic of CF lung disease in vivo.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Transregios
• Subproject of: TRR 84: Innate Immunity of the Lung: Mechanisms of Pathogen Attack and Host Defence in Pneumonia
• Applicant Institution: shared FU Berlin and HU Berlin through:; Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• Project Heads: Privatdozent Dr. Torsten Hain; Professor Dr. Marcus Mall