Research strengths

Lung Biology and Disease Program

NIH Funding:
Nearly all members are funded by the NIH and/or private foundations and corporations

Examples of Currently Funded Lung Research Projects

Principal Investigator	Project Title	Total $ Anticipated
Oberdörster, Gunter with Phipps, Richard, Utell, Mark, Frampton, Mark, Finkelstein, Jack and others	New EPA Center (one of only six in the USA) to study ultrafine particles and lung and cardiovascular disease)	$8,000,000
Frampton, Mark, Phipps, Richard	Multidisciplinary Training Grant in Pulmonary Research	$1,929,575
	Regulation of Immunity by Prostaglandins	$1,815,840
	Cigarette Smoke Induction of the Cyclooxygenase and Prostaglandin Pathway: Implications for Lung Inflammation and Cancer	$1,007,398
	Functional Diversity of Orbital Fibroblasts	$429,791
Phipps, Richard	Platelet Activation and Inflammatory Mediators	$1,248,000

Facilities: Core faculty have established a research center in 10,000 square feet of new space with 48 contiguous laboratory benches.

Gene therapy facility for preclinical testing of viral vectors for lung disease.
Dedicated facility and mouse/rat models for cigarette or smoke induced lung disease
State of the art facility for rodent exposure to occupational environmental airborne particles, gases, etc.
New human inhalation facility for exposure to particles, etc.

Resource Highlights: A new state-of-the-art inhalation facility was recently constructed to evaluate known and suspected airborne toxicants, and to pursue gene and drug therapies for lung disease. The group has access to human samples of lung tissue, BAL fluids, induced sputum, etc., from patient populations with COPD, asthma, etc. The group has also prepared primary strains of human lung fibroblasts from normal and diseased tissue.

Faculty: Approximately 30 faculty members from across the Medical Center
Faculty and Scientific Interests