Wellington Cardoso, MD, PhD, "Human airway epithelial cultures as a platform to study viral respiratory diseases"
Dr. Cardoso is establishing the use of primary organotypic airway epithelial cultures to study multiple aspects of SARS-CoV-2 infections. Cellular subtypes in the nasal epithelium have been shown to express ACE2 and high viral loads have been seen in this region in COVID-19 patients, suggesting these cellular subtypes may be targets of infection by SARS-CoV-2. Primary culture of adult and pediatric airway progenitors can reproduce organotypic epithelial cultures that may provide an in vitroplatform to study viral infection. This patient-specific in vitroplatform may be used to study virus-host interactions, viral effects on epithelial physiology, drug testing, and many other facets of SARS-CoV-2 infections.
