Research

Dr. Barbers’ research explores how abnormal repair processes (which include inflammatory and immune mechanisms) eventually lead to airway fibrosis (remodeling) in asthma. He is also collaborating with Dr. Omid Akbari’s laboratory to search out the role of innate and adaptive immunity in asthma as well as to search out the role of autophagy (repair and regeneration of cells) in this very common disease.

Dr. Baydur’s research investigates changes in respiratory physiology that occur in patients with cardiovascular and ventilatory disorders such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma. He is also interested in learning whether linking the results of lung imaging, pulmonary function studies and transbronchial lung biopsies better predict outcomes of patients experiencing chronic rejection of their transplanted lung.

Dr. Castriotta’s research activities are focused on the interaction of heart and lung function during sleep in health and disease.

Dr. Chang studies the diagnostic yield and cost-effectiveness of new bronchoscopic and pleural interventions. She is also interested in learning whether lung cancer outcomes differ in patient populations with health care disparities.

Dr. Ganesh is involved in many multi-centered drug studies looking for better ways to treat patients with pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary fibrosis, or both. She is also conducting investigator-initiated studies that seek better treatment options for patients with pulmonary hypertension or lung transplantation.

Dr. Iyer-Kumar is involved in the study and implementation of best practices within the ICU and in health systems to improve patient safety and optimize care delivery.

Dr. Lee’s clinical research interests are in critical care medicine as well as graduate medical education.

Dr. Liebler is interested in identifying sub-populations of patients in the critical care unit who are at an increased risk for adverse outcomes. She is also involved in several multi-centered clinical research studies, including one that will attempt to discover the best ways to transition patients from mechanical ventilation to spontaneous breathing.

Dr. Rao’s research activities are focused on improving the outcomes for patients with cystic fibrosis. He is participating in several multi-centered studies, as well as investigator-initiated studies, toward achieving that goal.

Dr. Chen’s research interests focus on using human pluripotent stem cells (including embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells) as a model to study the mechanisms of lung injury repair and ultimately apply the pluripotent stem cell derived lung stem/progenitor or mature airway/lung epithelial cells to facilitate lung injury repair, stem-cell therapy, and regenerative medicine.

Dr. Crandall’s research group has long focused on the lung’s primary barrier between the external environment and the internal milieu, namely the alveolar epithelium (lining cells of the terminal air sacs). Dr. Crandall and his group have investigated many aspects of alveolar epithelial cell biology (e.g., acute and chronic lung injury/recovery and alveolar epithelial interactions with engineered nanomaterials). Current project highlights include studies on the cell biology of interactions of inhaled nanoparticles with alveolar epithelial cells and mechanisms underlying the relationship between intermittent long-term low-level exposure to inhaled nanomaterials and development of chronic lung diseases including COPD and pulmonary fibrosis. The ultimate goal of these studies is to develop new approaches to prevention of lung diseases due to air pollution and to enhancement of therapeutic nanomaterial-mediated drug/gene delivery.

Dr. Sipos applies his expertise in live cell imaging techniques to visualize biological events in cells high spatial and temporal resolution. His research focuses one evaluating how exposure of the lungs to ambient particles is involved in the development of chronic lung diseases, either by their direct effect on the airway epithelial cells or through disrupting cellular homeostatic mechanisms.

Dr. Zhou’s research focuses on transcriptional regulation of alveolar epithelial cell differentiation and plasticity, and epithelial-mesenchymal cross talk in the context of lung injury, repair and fibrosis.