AGnES Study

The bugs in our nose and lungs (airway microbes) include those that are pathogenic (cause disease) and those that are simply colonizing (living in airways but not causing disease). By definition, the bugs living in our airways originated elsewhere, and that source may well be the air in our primary living space (our homes).

We propose to test this idea by testing the air in home environments of those with common airway diseases (like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD]) to see what bugs exist therein, and to also test the lungs, nasal passages and stool samples of those living in those homes, to see what bugs are similar between the microenvironments. Then, we will see if those bugs that are common to the microenvironments are those that seem to be most related to clinical features like lung function, lung inflammation, and genomic changes in the lung (this means changes in the way our genes are chemically modified and produce the proteins they are programmed to produce).

If there is such a relationship, we will use these results to design interventions, such as the use of air purifiers, that may alter the relationship between the outside (air) and inner (airway) environment and then thereafter test these interventions to see if they can beneficially alter clinically meaningful parameters.