THE TRANSLATIONAL GOAL WILL BE TO SPARK A PASSION FOR NTM SCIENCE... DR. JENNIFER HONDA ’93 :: MENTOR
or different from global circulating strains,” explained Honda, who also serves as the inaugural Director of the Center for NTM Inno- vation at the University of Texas at Tyler. Honda is especially excited that the students who participated in the environmental sampling project were able to recover new NTM organisms from Hawai‘i that had not yet been described. “It’s simply amazing that the ‘Āina-Informatics program is helping to sequence these novel NTM genomes, and students and mentors from Hawai’i are doing this in their classrooms,” said Honda, who also shared her hope that the program would inspire a new generation of NTM researchers. That generation includes 2014 ‘Iolani graduate Tiana Koch who is currently working as a research associate in Dr. Honda’s NTM Lab. “The translational goal will be to spark a passion for NTM science, because the field needs more great minds to reduce the burden of a pulmonary disease that is escalating not just at home but also globally.”
Hawai‘i patients with NTM pulmonary disease. The research group is also analyzing the data to identify the primary point sources of exposure. Some of their significant findings so far include the discovery of NTM on Kīlauea ash and the association of NTM with moist soil containing high levels of iron. NTM were less prevalent in outdoor versus indoor samples. In collaboration with ‘Iolani, Dr. Honda hosted the first NTM lung disease education and research conference in February 2020 at the Sullivan Center and Seto Hall. Over the past 10 years of collaboration, 12 ‘Iolani Independent Research students have received mentorships from Dr. Honda on their NTM research projects. Three of those students — Jonathan Abe ’15, Cara Tan ’20, and Michael Kostecki ’25 — also produced first-author scientific articles published in peer-reviewed microbial journals. “NTM whole genome sequencing not only helps us understand NTM biology, but also shows us how Hawai‘i NTM are similar to
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