Samson Folami

Research

Rhinovirus infections account for about 50% of upper respiratory tract infections, which causes life-threatening exacerbations in patients with chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma and COPD. Despite this, there are no effective therapies for the prophylaxis of exacerbations, mostly focused on alleviation of associated symptoms. Our gut commensals are long-standing potent immunomodulators using the metabolites they produce/release locally, which also act in distal organs. We hypothesized that administration of gut-microbiota derived metabolites can bolster nasal mucosal immunity in preparation for incoming viral threats. Using techniques such as air-liquid interface nasal epithelial-immune cell co-cultures, transcriptomics, spectral flow cytometry and  high-throughput screening of gut-microbiota derived metabolites libraries, we aim to study the impact of metabolites on respiratory viral infections and their molecular mechanisms. Furthermore, I am contributing to the development of a nasal spray containing gut-microbiota derived metabolites that will soon be tested in healthy volunteers for safety, tolerability and immune cell priming ability.

Curriculum Vitae

I was trained as a pharmacist in Nigeria before I started the Innovative Medicine Master’s programme at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands and Uppsala University, Sweden respectively. During my master’s programme, I undertook three research internships. My first internship was in the group of Dr. Machteld Hylkema at Groningen Research Institute of Asthma and COPD in Groningen where I investigated the behavior of lung basal stem cells in COPD to gain insight into the crosstalk between the airway epithelium and the lung parenchyma during repair. Under the supervision of Dr. Roland Schwarzer at the Institute for the Research on HIV and AIDS-associated Diseases, Germany, I conducted series of experiments aimed at deciphering the role of HIF-1α in both antiretroviral drug response and latency reversal in HIV using primary CD4+ T cells and T cell lines. For my master’s thesis conducted at the Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Denmark, I worked on a project surrounding helminth infections in a mouse model of fatty liver disease under the supervision of Dr. Vineesh Indira Chandran in the group of Prof. Peter Nejsum. In this project, I did histological staining on mouse liver sections and  analyzed proteomics, as well as metabolomics data obtained from mouse liver, to understand if (and how) helminth infection can regulate inflammation associated with fatty liver. My background and experience as a pharmacist (in community & hospital pharmacy practice) reinforces my deep interest in projects with a clear translational potential, hence my strong affinity for my PhD research project that I commenced November 2024 in the group of Prof. Hermelijn Smits.