December 18, 2013

Katie Price (top), a post-doc in the lab, working with Alex Gifford, MD (middle) and Tom Hampton (bottom), our stats guru, published a paper in the journal Microbiome assessing the microbial communities in sputum from adult Cystic Fibrosis patients as they undergo a cycle of stability, exacerbation, then followed by a return to stable health.  The central findings are that the sputum microbiome of these patients is relatively stable across time and these clinical events, and is particular from patient to patient, raising the possibility of tailoring treatments on a patient-bu-patient basis.

A better understanding of events leading to exacerbation is key as these events have a profound negative impact on patient health and lung function.