Danillo Augusto’s new $3.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health featured in The Charlotte Post
Danillo Augusto, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, discussed his lab’s new $3.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in The Charlotte Post.
The Augusto Lab is working on an immunomics project using new methodology and approaches to study human immune responses and autoimmune disease. The team is using a novel method of long-read sequencing technology, a first of its kind in how it examines complex portions of the human genome, and studying how it reacts with pathogens.
“I think my ultimate goal is to actually identify specific markers that are candid for specific [gene] therapy,” Augusto said. “I’m not a physician, but at least we want to find what could be used for better therapy for this disease. The other thing is being able to identify if there is an environmental factor. We know there is something in the environment that triggered the disease, but we want to know what. Is it a virus? Is it a pathogenic virus or non-pathogenic virus? So, understanding that could also be ways we can help prevention.”