Dr. Samarasinghe’s research interests include allergic asthma, altered immune responses in asthma patients during respiratory viral and bacterial infections, and developing novel therapies and clinical care practices to reduce the healthcare burden.
Her lab was the first to identify that eosinophilic asthma was host protective during the 2009 pandemic influenza virus infection and that eosinophils played a crucial role in this protection. Ongoing studies are aimed at:
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Investigating antiviral immune responses in allergic asthma during common respiratory viral infections
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Characterizing antibacterial immune responses in allergic asthma during primary and opportunistic respiratory bacterial infections
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Exploring the role of resident lung microbiota in asthma and susceptibility to pulmonary infections