Fabeha Fazal, Ph.D.

My lab focuses on understanding the pathogenesis of Acute Lung Injury (ALI), a life threatening pulmonary inflammatory condition, which affects over a quarter of million patients in the U.S. with a mortality rate of approximately 40 percent. It is associated with pneumonia, sepsis, and trauma, leading to pulmonary insufficiency and eventually multisystem organ failure. So far, there are no effective therapy targeting the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms. The two major pathogenic features of ALI involves disruption of pulmonary vascular endothelial barrier and acquisition of a proinflammatory phenotype. The long term goal of my research is to identify novel mechanistic targets and assess the preventive and therapeutic benefit of targeting them against evolving ALI. In our lab we use integration of in vitro and in vivo techniques to dissect the pathways that are critical to endothelial cell (EC) inflammation and permeability. We use multidisciplinary approaches ranging from biochemical, cellular, and molecular biology to in vivo gene delivery and lung physiology.