Bethany B. Moore, Ph.D.

Dr. Moore’s laboratory has several areas of research interest.  One focus is the regulation of innate and adaptive immunity post-stem cell transplantation.  Her laboratory uses murine models and human clinical samples to study alterations to dendritic cell function, Th1 vs Th17 skewing in response to herpesvirus infections, the role of IL-17 in development of pneumonitis and fibrosis and how viral infections impact development of graft versus host disease.  For this work she focuses on murine herpesviruses.  Her laboratory is also interested in how the process of transplantation alters innate immune cell function to impair clearance of bacterial lung infections. 

She has active projects related to secondary bacterial infection in the lung following influenza or respiratory syncytial virus infection.  The influenza project focuses on TLR9 signaling and how the innate immune response is altered in the presence of influenza infection. The RSV project seeks to understand impaired neutrophil recruitment in response to bacterial challenge.

Another area of interest is the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis.  In this work, her laboratory has studied how development of fibrosis in the lungs alters lung microbiota, how herpesvirus infections exacerbate fibrosis and how monocyte/macrophages impact development of disease.  Current projects are focused on the role of myeloid versus epithelial derived HB-EGF in driving disease pathogenesis.  She also studies how the fibrotic lung milieu impacts the function of innate immune cells to clear bacterial infections.

Finally, her laboratory has active collaborations with Dr. Katherine Gallagher to study diabetic wound healing.  In this work they are interested in prostaglandin signaling and epigenetic alterations to inflammatory macrophages that influence wound healing.  In collaborative projects with Durga Singer, we are studying how diabetic mice are impaired in clearance of bacterial pneumonia.  We also study influenza and coronavirus infections in the setting of diabetes.