Status: Sequencing
Streptococcus pneumoniae (Spn) is a gram-positive pathobiont that asymptomatically colonizes the nasal cavity of healthy individuals yet can cause life-threatening invasive infections in children and older adults. The mechanisms underlying why only a fraction of individuals colonized with Spn progress to severe disease and how nasal cells interact with different strains of Spn remain poorly understood. The upper respiratory tract, as the first site of Spn colonization, represents a key niche in which to interrogate these host-pathogen dynamics but the role of epithelial cells in innate immunity is often an overlooked area of infectious disease research. We aim to determine how different nasal epithelial cell subtypes respond and interact during Spn challenge and to compare and contrast the responses to a colonizing versus invasive Spn strain.
Submitted: 2026-09-09 08:54 · Last updated: 2026-10-08 12:14