Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Despite impacting half of the global population, we currently lack a detailed understanding of how the immune system plays a role in vaginal health and disease. Our current knowledge indicates that immunity is different in the vagina compared to other sites in the body, demonstrating the importance of studying how the immune system specifically functions at the vaginal mucosa. Improving our understanding of vaginal immunity can provide important context relevant to the treatment of infections, cancers, fertility disorders, and other diseases of the female reproductive tract. To expand our understanding of vaginal immunity, I will be studying one of the most common diseases of the vagina, vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC), commonly known as a yeast infection. About 75% of people with vaginas will experience VVC in their lifetime, and the risk factors are exceedingly common, including the use of antibacterials and both type-1 and type-2 diabetes. However, despite the commonality of VVC, we do not understand how the vagina fights the infection and why common illnesses like diabetes make people with vaginas more likely to develop the disease. Using multiple mouse models of diabetes, I have recapitulated this increased risk for VVC, and can now mechanistically dissect how the vagina combats infection, and how diabetes alters this fundamental immunology. Using immunology-based techniques, I will therefore characterize which components of the immune system are important for these responses to expand our understanding of vaginal immunology and pave the way for potential therapeutic interventions for VVC that target the immune system.