Our Research labs perform a broad spectrum of studies aimed at understanding chronic inflammation and disease, including the investigation of allergy and asthma (Aronica, Comhair, Hsieh and Erzurum laboratories), inflammatory bowel disease (Achkar, de la Motte, Fiocchi, McDonald and Stylianou laboratories), granulomatous inflammation (Culver and Dweik laboratories), pulmonary vascular disease (Dweik and Erzurum laboratories), tissue injury and host defense through nitric oxide synthesis (McCurry and Stuehr laboratories), idiopathic lung disease (Olman laboratory), nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (McCullough laboratory), alcohol consumption, liver disease and diabetes (Nagy laboratory), obesity and diabetes (Kirwan laboratory), and perinatal and neonatal metabolism and growth (Kalhan laboratory).
Our goals are to enhance prevention, treatment and cures through research, and to develop innovative clinical programs for treating patients. The common research theme and the multi-disciplinary creative investigators in Pathobiology assure a continued high degree of successful collaborations, discoveries and innovation that allow us to realize these goals.
Our long-term goal is to define mechanisms that regulate the synthesis, degradation and organization of hyaluronan, tumor necrosis factor-stimulated gene 6 (TSG-6) and inter-a-trypsin inhibitor (IaI) within the lung, how these matrix components affect inflammation, and their effects on lung structure and function.
Our research focus is to understand the loss of antioxidants, Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) in the pathogenesis of asthma. Ongoing studies are aimed at investigating the mechanisms of SOD loss and identifying strategies for intervention that may result in novel therapies.
Our group focuses on human inflammatory diseases that affect the lungs, including sarcoidosis and asthma.
The research in my laboratory is aimed at understanding the role of extracellular matrix to inflammatory cell recruitment and activation involved in diseases of the intestine and lung.
The goal of our current studies is to understand the role of nitric oxide (and other markers in exhaled breath) in lung physiology and in the pathophysiology of lung diseases like pulmonary hypertension and asthma.
Our research is focused on the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The approach we have adopted is to investigate immune events occurring in the bowel in patients with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, as well as in animal models of IBD.
Our laboratory is interested in studying the development and function of the mast cell in human diseases, with special emphasis on the contribution of mast cells to allergic pulmonary inflammation.
We are examining whole body and organ metabolism in humans using stable isotopic tracers and mass spectrometry. Animal models are used to answer certain key questions and complement human studies.
The Kirwan Laboratory conducts clinical translational research in age and obesity-related insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Our research examines how exercise and nutrition alter disease risk associated with insulin resistance, obesity, and type 2 diabetes in older adults.
Dr. McCullough investigates the pathophysiology of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
Our lab is looking at what triggers and exacerbates ischemia reperfusion injury in hopes of developing techniques, strategies, pharmacological agents or other approaches to try and protect the lungs during the transplant process. In addition, we are trying to increase the number of usable donor lungs for patients in clinical lung transplantation
The research in our laboratory examines how Crohn’s disease risk factors act together to shape antibacterial immune responses and how these responses are altered in the context of disease. One major focus of the laboratory is the cooperative action of two risk genes, NOD2 and ATG16L1, in sensing and killing bacteria by a specialized process called autophagy. Other studies in the laboratory complement this research by examining the control of normal Nod2-dependent immune responses.
The research in my laboratory is aimed at understanding how chronic alcohol consumption contributes to chronic diseases, such as liver disease and diabetes.
Our research is focused on the pathogenesis on the fatal and untreatable disorder of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The general approach we adopt is to investigate pulmonary fibrosis at the molecular level, in cells and animal models, and to validate the newly discovered pathways using patient samples.
Our laboratory studies nitric oxide (NO) biosynthesis in mammals. We study how NO biosynthesis takes place at the molecular level and how it is regulated, and also study the impact of NO synthesis on certain aspects of cells and tissues.
Our research focus is to understand the molecular basis of gene transcription in the context of the inflammatory response to tissue injury and to define the key molecular events that lead to the development of inflammatory disease. This is crucially important to advancing current knowledge of the molecular events that determine whether inflammation is a physiologically beneficial, or a chronic/pathological response.
