Bryan Johnson, PhD

One of the key differences between mild and severe COVID-19 is the body’s immune response to the virus. In severe COVID-19, there is a severe immune reaction, called a “cytokine storm,” where the immune system overreacts. Rather than helping fight the virus, this overreaction instead leads to harmful inflammation and tissue damage. We will focus on understanding how the virus that causes COVID-19 disrupts the body’s normal immune response. Specifically, we will examine how the virus prevents the formation of “stress granules,” tiny cellular structures that can help regulate immune activity. By creating a virus mutation that allows stress granules to form again, we will investigate how these structures alter the activation of our immune system and impact lung disease. Overall, this work aims to uncover how stress granules change the immune response during infection, with the goal of supporting new treatments for severe COVID-19.