Education

  • PhD, Louisiana State University A&M Medical Center - New Orleans, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, 1997
  • Post Doctoral Fellowship, Mayo Clinic - Scottsdale, Arizona, 1997-2003

Research Interests

Exposures during early life to environmental factors, such as allergens, pollutants, and respiratory viruses, lead to predisposition, development of, or exacerbation of respiratory disease in the adult. In her research, Dr. Cormier seeks to define the cellular and molecular changes in the pulmonary microenvironment following gestational and/or neonatal exposure; to determine if urban pollutants, such as particulates from combustion processes, initiate cellular or molecular events in the developing lung, which lead to increased susceptibility to airways disease later in life; to define the impact of respiratory viral infection on pulmonary pathophysiology of infants; and to understand how urban pollutants impact host defense resulting in enhanced morbidity and increased mortality from respiratory infections. The long-term objective is to realize the initiators of the immune and pathophysiological changes that occur during the early stages of pulmonary airways disease and ultimately to develop effective interventions and therapies.

Lab: Respiratory Immunology and Toxicology

Selected Publications

  1. Yamamoto A, Sly PD, Khachatryan L, Begum N, Yeo AJ, Robinson PD, Cormier SA, Fantino E. Astaxanthin protects against environmentally persistent free radical-induced oxidative stress in well-differentiated respiratory epithelium. Redox Biol. 2025;81:103542. Epub 20250209. doi: 10.1016/j.redox.2025.103542. PubMed PMID: 39952200; PMCID: PMC11875192.

  2. Vilcins D, Dangal P, Lomnicki S, Cormier SA, Lee WR, Sly PD. Household dust as a reservoir for environmentally persistent free radicals: a longitudinal study. Int J Environ Health Res. 2025:1-12. Epub 20250430. doi: 10.1080/09603123.2025.2495202. PubMed PMID: 40304727.

  3. Martin I, Silverberg M, Abdelgawad A, Tanaka K, Halloran BA, Nicola T, Myers ED, Desai JP, White CT, Karabayir I, Akbilgic O, Tipton L, Gentle SJ, Ambalavanan N, Peters BM, Vu LD, Jain VG, Lal CV, Cormier SA, Pierre JF, Jilling T, Talati AJ, Willis KA. The fungal microbiota modulate neonatal oxygen-induced lung injury. Microbiome. 2025;13(1):24. Epub 20250127. doi: 10.1186/s40168-025-02032-x. PubMed PMID: 39871397; PMCID: PMC11773857.

  4. Lee WR, Dangal P, Langan G, Lazarevic N, Xu Z, Cormier SA, Lomnicki S, Sly PD, Vilcins D. Associations between household characteristics and environmentally persistent free radicals in house dust from two Australian locations. Front Public Health. 2025;13:1603114. Epub 20250618. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1603114. PubMed PMID: 40606084; PMCID: PMC12213907.

  5. Lard ML, Eichler SE, Gao P, Singh K, Ortiz JD, Cook RL, Lomnicki S, Cormier SA, Richmond-Bryant J. Soil contamination by environmentally persistent free radicals and dioxins following train derailment in East Palestine, OH. Environ Sci Process Impacts. 2025;27(3):729-40. Epub 20250319. doi: 10.1039/d4em00609g. PubMed PMID: 39981852; PMCID: PMC11843876.

  6. Flores-Torres AS, Rezinciuc S, Bezavada L, Shulkin BL, Cormier SA, Smallwood HS. Respiratory Syncytial Virus Elicits Glycolytic Metabolism in Pediatric Upper and Lower Airways. Viruses. 2025;17(5). Epub 20250514. doi: 10.3390/v17050703. PubMed PMID: 40431714; PMCID: PMC12115633.

  7. Vu LD, Christofferson RC, O'Neal HR, Jr., Hamer D, Phan ATQ, Vance KM, Turner EA, Kumar A, Yola IM, Lim N, Ogden B, Cormier SA. Predicting severe COVID-19 using readily available admission indicators: SpO2/FiO2 ratio, comorbidity index, and gender. Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 2024;249:10193. Epub 20241120. doi: 10.3389/ebm.2024.10193. PubMed PMID: 39633683; PMCID: PMC11614601.

  8. Vilcins D, Lee WR, Blake TL, Wu W, Cormier S, Sly PD. Assessing the Impact of Wildfire Smoke Exposure on Lung Health: A Pilot Feasibility Study Using Prescribed Fires as a Model. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2024. Epub 20240716. doi: 10.1164/rccm.202403-0625RL. PubMed PMID: 39012210.

  9. Immanuel CN, Teng B, Dong BE, Gordon EM, Luellen C, Lopez B, Harding J, Cormier SA, Fitzpatrick EA, Schwingshackl A, Waters CM. Two-pore potassium channel TREK-1 (K2P2.1) regulates NLRP3 inflammasome activity in macrophages. Am J Physiol-Lung C. 2024;326(3):L367-L76. Epub 20240122. doi: 10.1152/ajplung.00313.2023. PubMed PMID: 38252657; PMCID: PMC11281793.

  10. Vu LD, Phan ATQ, Hijano DR, Siefker DT, Tillman H, Cormier SA. IL-1beta Promotes Expansion of IL-33(+) Lung Epithelial Stem Cells after Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection during Infancy. Am J Resp Cell Mol. 2022;66(3):312-22. Epub 20211203. doi: 10.1165/rcmb.2021-0313OC. PubMed PMID: 34861136; PMCID: PMC8937243.

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