Brian Southern Laboratory

Brian Southern, MD

Associate Staff
Location: Cleveland Clinic Main Campus

Research

Biography

Dr. Southern is a Staff Physician in the Respiratory Institute and Assistant Professor of Molecular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. He has a secondary appointment as an Associate Staff Scientist in the Lerner Research Institute Department of Pathobiology, where his research focus is Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). Dr. Southern explores how fibroblasts and myofibroblasts (the scar-producing cells in IPF) interact with lung tissue matrix to propagate fibrosis. He has identified that the molecular motor protein, non-muscle myosin II, is a critical molecule driving fibrosis, and is further characterizing the myosin II pathway in fibroblasts in order to identify novel targets to halt fibrosis in patients with IPF.

In addition to his research activities, Dr. Southern conducts an outpatient clinic where he cares for patients with interstitial lung disease and sarcoidosis, and he is a co-investigator on a number of clinical trials for patients with IPF. He serves as the physician leader for the Cleveland area Pulmonary Fibrosis Support Group. 

Education & Professional Highlights

Education & Fellowships

Fellowship - Case Western Reserve University - University Hospitals of Cleveland
Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine
Cleveland, OH USA
2012

Residency - Case Western Reserve University - University Hospitals of Cleveland
Internal Medicine
Cleveland, OH USA
2009

Medical Education - University of Alabama School of Medicine
Birmingham, AL USA
2003

Undergraduate - University of Alabama at Birmingham
Birmingham, AL USA
1996

Professional Highlights

• Dr. Southern has been invited to present his research findings at local and national meetings, including the American Thoracic Society International Conference, the Keystone Symposium on Fibrosis,and the Society for Clinical Research/Midwestern Section American Federation for Medical Research (CSCR/MWAFMR).  He has been awarded research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Parker B Francis Foundation, Genentech, Inc., and the Cleveland Clinic Research Program Committee.  He has served as a grant reviewer for the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP), the Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research, and the Cleveland Clinic Research Program Committee. He reviews manuscripts for a number of scientific journals. He also supervises pulmonary fellows in the Interstitial Lung Disease Clinic and on the inpatient pulmonary consult service. Additionally, he serves as a volunteer physician at the Free Medical Clinic of Greater Cleveland. 

Certifications

• Internal Medicine - Pulmonary Disease
• Internal Medicine - Critical Care Medicine

Awards & Honors

• 2017 NIH K08 Award
• 2017 Parker B Francis Fellowship Award (declined)
• 2017 Parker B Francis Research Opportunity Award
• 2015 Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation Summit, Top Ten Abstract
• 2015 Genentech Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Junior Faculty Award
• 2014 Cleveland Clinic Research Program Committees Award
• 2012 Travel Award, ATS Assembly on Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology
• 2009 The Peter Morgan Award, for outstanding leadership as a senior resident

Memberships

• American Thoracic Society
• American Society for Matrix Biology
• American Association for the Advancement of Science