Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a chronic inflammatory disease that significantly decreases quality of life due to symptoms such as loss of smell or facial pain. CRS is also fairly common, affecting approximately 10% of the worldwide population; despite this, a way to cleanly and non-invasively subdivide patients does not yet exist. My project utilizes glycomics to identify region-specific glycan structures that can discriminate between CRS endotypes as well as an optimal sampling site to classify patients. Investigating changes in glycan behavior as a result of microbial interactions could also provide insights into mucus dysfunction in CRS. I aim to develop a standardized, glycomics-based method for non-invasive diagnosis and stratification of CRS patients, and potentially explore glycan-guided manipulation of the microbiome as a future alternative to antibiotics.

Participating in SuperUROP offers the opportunity to explore the intersection of patient care, translational biology, and biological engineering-fields I am deeply interested in. Through a long-term research project, I hope to understand how exploration of biological pathways can lead to improved diagnoses and treatment options for patients.