Current Research Projects
Dr. Pryhuber's work now focuses on systems biology approaches to identify factors that contribute to inflammatory lung disease of infants.
The Prematurity and Respiratory Outcomes Program is multicenter research team that is collecting a high volume of "big data" sets from preterm infants in Neonatal Intensive Care Units across the country during their stay in the hospital and followed for an additional year.
As part of this overall effort, Dr. Pryhuber is evaluating the maturation state of the immune system of these infants using flow cytometric, high-throughput RNA sequencing technologies and multiplex analysis.
In an additional study as part of the Respiratory Pathogen Research Center, a set of these patients in addition to a larger cohort of preterm and term infants will be followed for three years.
Additionally, swabs of the respiratory tract and rectum will be analyzed for the microorganisms that colonize these tracts. These data will be correlated with clinical outcome and biomarkers will be identified that may help predict outcomes and could be used as therapeutic targets.
Dr. Pryhuber’s group collaborates heavily with:
- URMC Flow Cytometry Resources
- The Rochester Human Immunology Center
- Thomas Mariani, Ph.D.
- Mary Caserta, M.D.
- David Topham, Ph.D.
- Steven Gill, Ph.D.
- Edward Walsh, M.D.
- Ann Falsey, M.D.
In the past, Dr. Pryhuber has also studied silicosis of the lung in mouse models and the role of TNF-α in this progression of interstitial fibrosis.