2022 Pilot Grand Awardee, Johns Hopkins
Dr. James Gordy is a Research Associate in the Molecular Microbiology and Immunology (MMI) department in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. James received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Georgia studying microbiology and infectious disease biology respectively, performing research to understand the characteristics of hyper-thermophilic bacteria and to understand the dynamics of influenza virus prevalence in natural reservoir species. James then completed his Ph.D. from the MMI department in 2016 in Dr. Richard Markham’s lab studying a therapeutic cancer vaccine. James continued in that lab for a Postdoctoral Fellowship, studying the combination of immune-stimulating drugs with the cancer vaccine. During this work, James developed a keen interest in the complexities of the interplay between vaccines and the immune system.
Awarded: $50,000.
What is Dr. Gordy’s research on?
To combat Tuberculosis
Why study TB?
Tuberculosis (TB), causes 125 million deaths a year and affects 134 people per 100,000 of the global population. In 2023, 10.8 million new cases were recorded.
What did Dr. Gordy find?
Treating the bacteria that causes TB is difficult because some bacteria can shift into a dormant (sleeper) state that allows them to avoid being killed by antibiotics Dr. Gordy and his team developed a new vaccine to target these “sleepers” that increases immune responses in the animals that receive it. However, it has only been tested on mice to date. Dr. Gordy found that the response to his new vaccine was different between the sexes. Females mounted a more intense response to the TB immunization. This was because males and females use different kinds of immune cells to respond to the vaccine. Understanding the sex-specific mode of how animals resist infection will help the development of more effective vaccines against this world-wide killer.
How the Foundation Gender for Specific Medicine’s Foundation’s grant specifically helped his research:
Doctor Gordy writes: “The grant from the foundation allowed me to pursue a new avenue of research that I will be able to use to set up my own funded projects. I am currently applying to tenure-track professor positions, and the work that originated from this project is a cornerstone of my application’s research plan. I am also using this work to apply for funding to continue my work. The systems that I developed from the Foundation’s grant are a significant part of an NIH R21 grant that we narrowly missed getting funded last year and have resubmitted recently. Additionally, sex as a variable is now being included in all our research and is a key part of an NIH R01 grant that we are also in the process of applying for. The Foundation’s grant has been an essential part of my current career development, and I am very thankful to the Foundation and to the donors that made all this possible. “
Current Status:
Doctor Gordy’s application for an NIH grant to support his work has been resubmitted after narrowly missing funding last year. He has submitted a manuscript reporting his work to the journal Biology of Ex Differences which is currently undergoing review. He reports that he is now using biological sex as an important variable in all his research and that our Foundation grant was essential to his current career development.