Lung Researcher Wins Competitive Fellowship

Matt Kottmann, M.D., assistant professor in the division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, received a highly competitive Parker B. Francis Fellowship grant to study lung scarring. Kottmann is one of just 11 lung researchers in the U.S. to receive the award, which supports the development of junior investigators as they make the transition to independent, self-supporting faculty members. 

The fellowship was given based on Kottmann’s work identifying a new pathway and thus a new treatment target for lung scarring diseases, such as pulmonary fibrosis. His work was recently published in the top ranking lung journal – the American Journal of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine – and presented at the American Thoracic Society annual meeting in May.

Kottmann works closely with mentors Patricia Sime, M.D., chief of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Division at URMC, and Richard Phipps, Ph.D., dean’s professor in the Department of Environmental Medicine and Director of the Lung Biology and Disease Program. Sime says Matt is a terrific translational scientist and a skilled and dedicated clinician. He is the co-director of the Interstitial Lung Disease Clinic where he sees patients, provides care and runs clinical trials for patients in Rochester and across the upstate region. Kottmann has received research grants from the University of Rochester Clinical and Translational Science Institute and the Empire Clinical Research Investigator Program.

Kottmann is one of several researchers from the Pulmonary and Critical Care Division and the Lung Biology and Disease Program at URMC who have received Parker B. Francis Fellowships over the past 10 years. Sime and Jim White, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in Pulmonary and Critical Care and Pharmacology and Physiology, were also awarded fellowships.