Kathleen Stringer, Robert Dickson, Jenn Baker, and Thomas Flott
(Robert Dickson’s luggage is still somewhere between Paris and Vienna, hence the casual attire!)
Jenn Baker presented her exciting research at ERS in Vienna. She’s sharing her translational findings demonstrating that respiratory pathogens (P. aeruginosa in particular) exploit the increased nutrient abundance of acutely injured lungs to accelerate their growth.
Congrats to Jenn her outstanding work!
Kale Bongers (in a collaboration with Ben Singer) has an important new study in SHOCK titled “Inflammatory responses to polymicrobial intra-abdominal sepsis are highly variable but strongly correlated to Enterobacteriaceae outgrowth.
In animal studies of sepsis, one of the most commonly used models is cecal slurry, in which cecal contents from one mouse are injected into the peritoneum of another, provoking bacterial peritonitis. In this study, Kale demonstrates that the severity of this model depends highly on the identity of bacteria in the cecal slurry, and even more on which bacteria within this community persist and dominate the peritoneal cavity.
This study has important implications both for the field of sepsis modeling (in terms of standardization and reproducibility) and for the study of sepsis heterogeneity in humans (in which the importance of the pathogen in driving variation in the host response has been overlooked and neglected).
Congrats to Kale!
Kale Bongers will be leaving the University of Michigan to launch his own lab at the University of Iowa, so we got together at HOMES Campus to send him off. We will continue to work closely with Kale in his new appointment, but will miss having him in the lab!
Great showing by the lab at ATS in San Diego! Congrats to Jenn on her abstract award, and to everyone for their successful presentations (and excursions).
New in JAMA Internal Medicine: a study led by Rishi Chanderraj and Mike Sjoding using a 15-month drug shortage (piperacillin-tazobactam) to determine the effects of unneeded anti-anaerobic antibiotics in the empiric treatment of sepsis.
In prior animal models (link, link) and observational cohort studies (link, link), depleting the gut of anaerobic commensals has been associated with worse outcomes. Our team used the 2015-16 national piperacillin-tazobactam shortage as a natural experiment. We found that treatment with piperacillin-tazobactam (which has potent activity against gut anaerobes) was associated with a 5% increase in 90-day mortality when compared to cefepime (which has no activity against anaerobes).
Most patients with sepsis have no indication for anti-anaerobic antibiotics, yet most get them anyway. Our findings suggest that we should reserve them for patients with a legitimate indication.
We got together at Casa Dominick’s to say goodbye to Anna and Brody and welcome Sam to the lab.
In the current issue of JAMA, Robert Dickson and U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell have published a Viewpoint essay titled “Urgent Need for Regulatory Oversight of Human Cells, Tissues, and Cellular and Tissue–Based Products.”
The essay describes the case of Shandra Eisenga, who contracted tuberculosis from a contaminated bone graft and ultimately died from the infection and its consequences. Her case launched a CDC outbreak investigation, which identified additional patients infected via the same infected tissue donor. This was the second tuberculosis outbreak since 2021 due to TB-contaminated bone graft tissue.
Dr. Dickson and Rep. Dingell have been working together to resolve the regulatory gaps that have allowed these outbreaks to occur. Two items of legislation (one named after Shandra) have been introduced to Congress to prevent further outbreaks from occurring due to these poorly regulated products.
At the annual UM Department of Medicine Research Symposium, Lily Maynard presented the work that she and Kale Bongers have been conducting to determine the role of gut microbiota in the catabolism of adipose tissue in sepsis. It was Lily’s first poster presentation, and she did great!
Nature has run an article summarizing the past decade of research into the lung microbiome and its potential role in disease (and as a therapeutic target). The article features Robert Dickson, along with numerous friends and collaborators of the lab.
“Exploring the lung microbiome’s role in disease” by Anthony King
Jenn Baker and Brody Mayoras both presented their work at the annual meeting of the Michigan chapter of the American Society for Microbiology. Jenn was awarded Best Poster for graduate students. Congrats, Jenn!
Kale Bongers was awarded an ASCI Emerging Generation Award, and was invited to share his work in Chicago at the 2024 ASCI Meeting.
Note that his tie is actually Figure 2A from his recent AJRCCM publication.
Jenn Baker has been awarded the “Excellence in Leadership Award” by the UM Office of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies. Jenn was selected from among grad students across the medical school. This award reflects Jenn’s impressive leadership activities, both within our lab, among M&I graduate students, and as a science communicator. Well-earned, congrats Jenn!
Jennifer Baker
Callie Drohan has been selected to serve as Chief Fellow for the 2024-2025 academic year for the University of Michigan Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program. In this role, Callie will participate in fellowship leadership, including recruitment, advocacy, and administration. Prior to fellowship, Callie served as Chief Medical Resident at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Congrats to Callie!
Callie Drohan
On February 27th at 3pm Eastern, Robert Dickson will speak on the topic of “Writing Impactful Significance & Innovation Sections” as part of the ATS RCMB Assembly’s Grant Writer's Toolkit: K to R - Transition to Independence Series. Dr. Dickson’s talk will be followed by roundtable discussions and small-group workshops. Registration link here.
Katie Winner has received a highly fundable score on her F31 application! This award will support Katie’s project studying the role of gut microbiota in the pathogenesis of acute kidney injury in sepsis. Congrats Katie!
Katie Winner
Michael Combs and Robert Dickson have a new study in the Blue Journal: “The Lung Microbiome Predicts Mortality and Response to Azithromycin in Lung Transplant Patients with Chronic Rejection.”
In this study, we discovered that among lung transplant recipients with newly diagnosed rejection (Chronic Lung Allograft Dysfunction), lung microbiota predict mortality and differ among patients that do and don’t respond to azithromycin. Additionally, we find microbiome-associated differences in alveolar immunity across otherwise similar patients, and report a novel ex vivo approach to determine how differences in the alveolar microenvironment contribute to selective bacterial growth. Congrats to Michael!
Citation: Combs MP, Luth JE, Falkowski NR, Wheeler DS, Walker NM, Erb-Downward JR, Wakeam E, Sjoding MW, Dunlap DG, Admon AJ, Dickson RP, Lama VN. The Lung Microbiome Predicts Mortality and Response to Azithromycin in Lung Transplant Patients with Chronic Rejection. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2024 Jan 25. doi: 10.1164/rccm.202308-1326OC. PMID: 38271553.
Michael Combs
Kale Bongers has been awarded a 2024 ASCI Emerging Generation Award.
“The Emerging Generation Awards (E-Gen Awards) recognize post-MD, pre-faculty appointment physician-scientists who are meaningfully engaged in immersive research.”
Kale is one of 33 recipients, and will receive his award in April at the annual ASCI meeting in Chicago.
Kale Bongers
Ryan Hsieh is a University of Michigan medical student who’ll be joining the lab. Ryan is participating in the NIH-funded Short-Term Biomedical Research Training Program (STBR), which will provide him some protected time to participate in research during his clinical training years. Ryan will be working with Robert Dickson and Rishi Chanderraj, investigating whether hyperoxia (which we have discovered alters respiratory and gastrointestinal microbiota) and hyperoxemia (which we have found is startlingly common among mechanically ventilated patients and predictive of mortality) are associated with increased rates of bacteremia with gut microbiota. Welcome, Ryan!
Ryan Hsieh
Michael Combs has received word from the NHLBI that he will be awarded a K23 (Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award) as of January 1! Michael will study the role of the lung microbiome in the development and progression of CLAD (chronic lung allograft dysfunction) in lung transplant recipients. He will be co-mentored by Robert Dickson and Vibha Lama. Congrats to Michael!
Robert Dickson, Michael Combs