Faculty

Dr. Parviz Minoo is a developmental geneticist whose research investigates the precise role of signaling and transcription factors in alveolar assembly. The overarching goal of this research is to provide the scientific basis for design and development of targeted and novel preventive or therapeutic measures for neonatal and adult alveolar lung diseases.

Dr. Crandall’s research is focused on the following topics: markers of alveolar epithelial cell development and differentiation, regulation of pulmonary epithelial cell differentiation, acute and chronic lung injury and the factors that influence recovery, transport properties of pulmonary alveolar epithelium.

Dr. Gilliland is an established leading investigator in air pollution research, respiratory health and cancer epidemiology, and gene-environment interactions, and he has been the principal investigator for many epidemiological investigations.

Dr. Maher’s research interests include; biomarker discovery and the lung microbiome and host immune response in the pathogenesis of IPF. He is also actively involved in designing and running clinical trials in fibrotic lung disease. He has been involved in >50 trials, from phase 1b through to phase 4, and is currently running studies assessing IPF, scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory myositis.

Dr. Omid Akbari is a cellular and molecular immunologist, and the objective of his laboratory is to characterize and define acquired and innate immune response in the lungs; investigate the mechanisms underlying the regulation of those responses; explore the mechanisms by which those responses contribute to inflammatory, allergic diseases and asthma; and determine means by which those responses can be specifically manipulated. The studies and research interests of Dr. Akbari’s laboratory can be categorized into the following major areas: 1) T cell subsets, costimulatory molecule and immunoregulation of diseases. 2) Role of dendritic cell subsets in regulation of immune responses. 3) Role of innate lymphoid cells in allergic lung inflammation and metabolic diseases. 4) Role of metabolic pathways and autophagy in immune cell activation and inflammation. 5) Targeting immune system and costimulatory molecules to improve anti-tumor immunity. 6) Respiratory tolerance and regulatory T cells.

Dr. Jessie Huang’s laboratory focuses on understanding the factors that control lung stem cell self-renewal and differentiation, in particular the regulation of cell fate decisions in reparative versus aberrant repair. We use physiologically relevant human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived in vitro models, mouse genetic models, and mouse injury models to study how lung injury-repair responses are orchestrated at the RNA, protein, and epigenetic levels.

Dr. Li’s research goals are to understand the mechanisms underlying lung development and disease. His laboratory is especially focused on lung maturation which occurs during saccular and alveolar phases. Lung maturation encompasses not only the proper structural (architectural) development of the lungs, but also differentiation and functionality of various highly specialized epithelial, mesenchymal and endodermal cell types. Failure of lung maturation is a significant health problem. In preterm infants, it can cause acute and chronic lung diseases, respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) and bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Dr. Li’s laboratory has elucidated novel interactions of several signaling pathways including WNT, PDGF, SHH, and TGF-beta in development and functions of key alveolar cell types such as secondary crest myofibroblasts and alveolar epithelial cells. There is currently a major focus directed at understanding the role of WNT5a, a non-canonical WNT ligand, that has been reported to be dysregulated in several lung diseases including usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP), asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and BPD.

Dr. Yao Wei Lu’s laboratory studies gene regulation that dictates cell fates and states in development and diseases. The Lu lab is particularly interested in understanding the function of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) in regulating post-transcriptional mechanisms in the cardiovascular and pulmonary systems. Using mouse and human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) as models, we apply various cutting-edge molecular, cellular, and genetic approaches to understand the function of RBPs in the context of development and diseases.

Research in the Offringa lab focuses on lung cell transcriptomics and (epi)genomics and includes the analysis of global and/or single-cell gene expression in primary lung cancer samples, cell lines, and organoids, the epigenetic basis of normal lung development, the effects of the environment on the lung epigenome, and the interplay between the genome and the epigenome.

Dr. Qu’s research focuses on the basic and translational aspects of human lung cancer and infection, through both experimental studies and mining big data (such as single-cell RNA and DNA sequencing).

Dr. Xiao’s current research interests are focused on the discovery and elucidation of immuno-oncology signaling pathways for the prognosis, prevention, and treatment of human lung cancer and diseases.

Dr. Zhou’s research focuses include: delineation of mechanisms regulating alveolar epithelial cell (AEC) proliferation, differentiation and plasticity in the context of lung injury and repair; investigation on the role of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and the ER master regulator GRP78 in AEC abnormalities in an age-linked chronic lung disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).