Research and Fellowship
The Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine at Northwestern is among the leading groups in the field of acute lung injury research. A recently funded NIH-Program Project Grant entitled "Pathophysiology of alveolar epithelial lung injury" and a NIH fellowship training grant incorporates multidisciplinary approaches with members of the Division as well as with scientists from the Departments of Cell & Molecular Biology and Bioengineering. Currently the faculty of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine is involved in basic science and clinical investigation.
Active basic research projects include studies involving:
- Mechanisms of particulate matter induced death.
- Mechanisms of hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) activation in pulmonary vasculature.
- Mechanisms of replicative senescence of lung cells during hypoxia.
- Effect of hypoxia and particulate matter on tight junctions.
- Genistein and asthma pathogenesis.
- Effects of hypoxia on alveolar epithelial cytoskeleton.
- Mechanisms of mechanical stress-induced airway remodeling in asthma.
- Role and regulation of sodium, potassium ATPase in lung.
- Dopamine-mediated regulation of lung edema clearance.
- The injurious effects of hypercapnia on the alveolar epithelium.
- Mechanism of b-catenin targeting to adhesive or transcriptional complexes.
- Immunomodulatory properties of antibiotics and herbal medicines: A pharmacogenomic approach.
- Suppressive effects of hypercapnia on lung host defense.
- Mechanisms of asbestos-indued alveolar epithelial cell injury.
