McArdle researcher Renee King, PhD, CCC-SLP, has been awarded a prestigious NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Dr. King, a postdoctoral trainee in Dr. Paul Lambert’s laboratory, studies laryngeal papillomavirus infection and related disease.
Recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP) is caused by chronic papillomavirus infections of the larynx. This disease significantly impairs communication and quality of life and requires repeated surgeries as the main intervention. Although a rare disease, it often arises in children causing significant hardship and lasting side effects from an early age. Dr. King’s research is focused on establishing mouse models to better understand how papillomaviruses cause vocal fold infections that lead to RRP in immunocompetent individuals.
The NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) is designed to support promising postdoctoral scientists in mentored research career development that will help their transition to an independent, tenure-track faculty position. The K99/R00 Award provides up to 5 years of grant support consisting of two phases: the Mentored Phase (K99) supports 1-2 years of mentored postdoctoral research training; the Independent Research Phase (R00) provides a research project grant for up to 3 years, contingent on the scientist securing an independent, tenure track faculty position. Receiving the prestigious K99/R00 Award benefits postdocs in obtaining a faculty position.
Dr. Lambert said Dr. King is an outstanding scientist who is very deserving of the K99/R00 Award. “Renee is destined to be a future leader in the RRP field and will impact the lives of RRP patients through her game-changing research and clinical training.”
King’s varied background and training makes her uniquely qualified to study RRP and related diseases. A licensed speech-language pathologist (SLP), King received a BA degree in Linguistics at The College of William & Mary, a BS degree in Communicative Disorders at Utah State University, and an MS in Speech-Language Pathology at Vanderbilt University. A subsequent SLP clinical fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Voice and Swallow Clinics piqued King’s interest in RRP. She then conducted dissertation research under the direction of Dr. Susan Thibeault (UW-Madison), receiving a PhD in Communication Sciences and Disorders and developing a novel mouse model of laryngeal papillomavirus infection in collaboration with the Lambert laboratory, initially in immunodeficient mice.
Dr. King joined the Lambert laboratory to develop a more physiologically relevant mouse model for RRP to better reflect the nature of RRP in human patients. Now she is using the novel in vivo laryngeal mouse papillomavirus (MmuPV1) infection model to define the extent to which injury enhances papillomavirus-induced vocal fold disease in immunocompetent individuals. She will investigate the effect of injury on vocal fold disease in a low-risk HPV milieu that better recapitulates RRP. She will then use novel in vivo and in vitro platforms to define the mechanisms by which injury enhances papillomavirus-induced vocal fold disease through each phase of the viral life cycle. These studies will better define how low-risk HPV exploits vocal fold injury to establish infections that lead to RRP in people.
Ultimately Dr. King will pursue an independent faculty clinician-scientist position and work to develop a collaborative, translational research program that uses preclinical models of RRP to improve the mechanistic understanding of this disease.
“As a clinical researcher, I saw first-hand how frequently people with RRP require invasive surgeries that may scar vocal folds and permanently damage the voice,” said Dr. King. “By understanding how RRP develops, we hope to uncover ways to prevent this devastating disease and to develop novel voice-preserving treatments.”