East Carolina University Wins $223,957 Federal Award to Study the Protein Switch That Helps Plague Bacteria Survive in the Lungs
East Carolina University (ECU) in Greenville, Pitt County, North Carolina, announced on October 30 that Roger Pechous, associate professor of microbiology and immunology in the Brody School of Medicine, has received an award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases providing $223,957 in direct costs to investigate how the protein BipA helps Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague, survive in the lungs.
The project runs from September 2, 2026 through August 31, 2028, and marks his second award from the institute this year.
The work centers on the bacterial protein BipA, which Pechous first linked to pneumonic plague in a 2021 paper in Infection and Immunity. "The protein I am working with is like a switch for the bacteria," Pechous said: when the bacteria encounter stressful conditions in the lungs, BipA helps direct which proteins they produce to survive. He wants to identify those proteins and determine how they help the bacteria withstand the immune system.
By studying what happens when the switch is turned off, his team hopes to identify weaknesses that future treatments could target. "This work identifies a protein that could be a target for therapeutic intervention," Pechous said.
Pneumonic plague affects the lungs and can develop after a person inhales respiratory droplets containing the bacteria. Its danger comes partly from how effectively the bacteria interfere with the body's initial defenses, allowing an infection to advance before the immune system mounts a strong response; when the immune system does respond, it sends large numbers of cells into the lungs, and that response can damage lung tissue and impair breathing.
The focus differs from Pechous' earlier $226,500 award from the institute, which examined how competition for zinc between the bacteria and their mammalian host affects disease. Together, the projects approach a larger question from different directions, asking what allows the bacteria to survive inside the body.
The funding also creates research training opportunities at ECU: a faculty member and two doctoral students will assist with the project, gaining experience with animal infection models and techniques for studying DNA, RNA and proteins. The award supports salaries, student stipends and laboratory supplies.
Although plague is often associated with the Black Death, a 14th-century epidemic, Pechous said studying the bacterium has implications beyond its place in history, because other disease-causing bacteria use some of the same strategies to survive and evade immune defenses.
East Carolina University official announcement
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 罗杰·佩查斯副教授（官方图）。东卡罗来纳大学新闻室，2026年10月30日。 / Associate Professor Roger Pechous (official photo). East Carolina University newsroom, October 30, 2026.
