Kohlmeier Lab
Principal Investigator: Jacob E Kohlmeier
Institution: Emory University (Atlanta, GA)
Primary Subfield: Molecular & Cell Bio
Recruitment Status: ✅ Hiring Postdocs
Research Focus
PROJECT SUMMARY Influenza virus is a major health burden worldwide, resulting in billions of dollars in medical costs and up to 600,00 deaths annually. Thus, a major challenge of pulmonary vaccinology is to develop an approach that will provide long-lasting and durable immunity in the lung. Seasonal influenza infection is driven largely by antigenic shift to avoid established antibody responses, limiting the efficacy of current influenza vaccinations designed to generate humoral immunity to the hemagglutinin protein. One approach to this problem is the development of vaccines designed to promote the generation of influenza-specific, lung-resident T cell memory. In animal models and human studies, memory T cells have been shown to significantly reduce viral loads after influenza challenge, leading to faster viral clearance, decreased transmission, and milder or sub- clinical symptoms. Lung tissue-resident memory T cells (lung TRM) have been found to be critical for this protective cellular response to influenza, but lung TRM numbers gradually decline over time. Despite thie importance for pulmonary immunity, we still have only a basic understanding of the cellular and molecular mech…
Active NIH Awards
- 5R35HL150803-07: Cellular and molecular programming of lung resident T cell memory (2026)
- 5R01AI188896-02: Coordination of innate and cellular mucosal immunity in SARS-CoV-2 clearance (2026)
- 5R01AI190367-02: Exploring the role of T cells in protection from respiratory virus transmission (2026)
- 5R35HL150803-06: Cellular and molecular programming of lung resident T cell memory (2025)
- 1R01AI190367-01: Exploring the role of T cells in protection from respiratory virus transmission (2025)
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