Human Respiratory Virome in Health and Lung Disease-Lung Bronchoscopy Cohort

Study Overview

Humans live in a closely interdependent relationship with microbes that inhabit the human body (the human microbiome), but the viruses that comprise the human microbiome (the virome) and how they influence health and disease are only now starting to be studied. We have found that the lung has a unique virome that is altered in some disease states, raising the question of how the respiratory tract virome impacts health and disease. The purpose of this project is to better understand the lung virome, and how the virome changes in lung diseases or from smoking, and how the lung virome may contribute to pulmonary injury and diseases. We will investigate the viruses as well as immune cells in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) specimens collected during bronchoscopy for virome and immune analysis. We will also compare the lower respiratory to the upper respiratory collections oropharyngeal (OP) samples

• Study Identifier: 827201