Dr. Shengyu Mu is a Co-Investigator on a newly funded NIH R01 project, “Neutrophil Inflammasome in Host Defense and Inflammatory Responses,” led by Dr. Youssef Aachoui, Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. This collaborative project brings together complementary expertise in innate immunity, kidney physiology, calcium signaling, epithelial biology, and immune-mediated kidney injury. The study addresses an important question in inflammation biology: why neutrophils can resist or undergo inflammasome-driven pyroptosis depending on the infection context. Dr. Mu’s role focuses particularly on defining how calcium dynamics regulate neutrophil pyroptosis and how hypocalcemia may promote neutrophillysis, inflammatory mediator release, and acute kidney injury.
The work will integrate omics, co-culture systems, electrophysiology, and complementary approaches in immunology and renal physiology. By linking fundamental mechanisms of neutrophil inflammasome regulation to clinically important conditions such as sepsis-associated acute kidney injury, this new R01 opens exciting opportunities for cross-disciplinary discovery. It also further strengthens collaboration between Pharmacology and Toxicology and Microbiology and Immunology and expands our department’s contributions
at the intersection of inflammation, host defense, and kidney disease.