NIH awards Rogers grant for asthma study
Christine Rogers, Research Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, has been awarded a two-year grant of $397,396 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study, called “Development and validation of a chitin assay for environmental samples,” will bring researchers closer to their long-term aim of understanding the causes of asthma.
Rogers’s specific research goal is to develop a way to measure amounts of airborne molecules linked to the development of asthma in past research. Rogers will focus on chitin, a type of particle common in known asthma triggers such as dust mites, cockroaches and fungi. With a method for measuring chitin levels, future researchers will have a tool in determining how chitins in indoor living spaces exacerbate asthma sufferers’ genetic sensitivity to these airborne particles.
The project will not only build upon Dr. Rogers’s research interests in the role of airborne particles in respiratory diseases such as asthma, but create a useful tool for future asthma researchers.