MD-PhD Student, Deeksha Deep, Awarded NIH F30 Research Grant

Fifth year Tri-Institutional MD-PhD student Deeksha Deep as been awarded an NIH F30  research grant. This grant will support Ms. Deep’s research in Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center's Rudensky Lab on her project "Dendritic cell heterogeneity and its role in pulmonary fungal infection.” The opportunistic fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus remains a health concern for critically ill patients and continues to have a high mortality rate despite improvements in anti-fungal therapies.

This project seeks to investigate the role of heterogeneous conventional dendritic cells (cDCs) in generating adaptive immune responses to A. fumigatus using novel high-content immunofluorescence microscopy methods. Understanding the mechanisms by which cDCs induce protective immunity may identify novel strategies for development of therapies and vaccines to mitigate the burden of A. fumigatus and other fungal pathogens.