Aileen Johnson earns 2020 ASTS-Natera Jon Fryer Resident Scientist Scholarship
APRIL 2020
Current PGY-2 resident Aileen Johnson, MD, has been chosen by the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS) Foundation to receive the 2020 ASTS-Natera Jon Fryer Resident Scientist Scholarship for her proposal "The metagenomic landscape of pancreas transplant febrile syndrome." Dr. Johnson will conduct the study during the first year of her upcoming research sabbatical in the laboratory of eminent Emory transplant surgeon-immunologist Christian Larsen, MD, DPhil.
Patients with advanced diabetes complicated by renal disease can be effectively treated with simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplant. Postoperatively, approximately a quarter of these patients experience pancreas transplant febrile syndrome (PTFS), an unexplained fever that results in prolonged hospitalization and lengthy workups. Developing knowledge about the post-transplant virome—the repertoire of viruses found on the surface of and inside the human body—has led to the prevailing hypothesis that an underlying viral infection is responsible for PFTS.
Dr. Johnson and her study team will work towards identifying a candidate for this causative agent by quantitatively comparing the viromes of transplant patients who develop PTFS with the viromes of those who do not. To better understand the role of patient immune factors in the infection process, immune cell clustering and T cell activation/exhaustion phenotypes will be assessed in relation to duration and severity of disease.
When these steps are completed, Dr. Johnson will use predictive modeling to determine if baseline immune cell phenotype is associated with risk of developing PTFS. The identification of an etiology for PTFS and subsequent understanding of its interaction with the immune system will pave the way for improving outcomes of this disease.