Despite the best efforts of intensive care unit (ICU) staff and physicians and the most advanced life support, Dr. Bryan Yipp, witnesses many deaths in the ICU attributed to sepsis. “Sepsis is the body’s overwhelming immune response to an infection, and sometimes that response can cause death,” says Yipp, a critical care physician and clinician-scientist at the Cumming School of Medicine. “While many cases involve people with long-term illnesses, seemingly healthy people can be at work or home one moment and then, within hours, be admitted to the ICU.”

Earlier this year, 41-year-old NASCAR race champion Kyle Busch died after pneumonia progressed to sepsis. Yipp says a recent discovery in his lab, published in Science, could lead to new treatments for this often-fatal condition.