The $3.1M NIH grant, led by BRI scientists in collaboration with the University of Salzburg in Austria, aims to address gaps in our knowledge of the body’s inflammatory responses by evaluating how T cells and other structural cells communicate with each other.
By studying samples from patients with common skin conditions like psoriasis and atopic dermatitis, the research team will assess hallmarks of the body’s “inflammatory memory”, the process by which inflammation leaves a lasting mark on a tissue that can modify subsequent inflammatory and tissue-repair responses. Ultimately, this work will help develop a better understanding of how inflammatory memory works in tissues like the skin in hopes of one day breaking the inflammatory cycle for patients with these skin conditions.