In fiscal year 2007-2008, the American Lung Association of California Research Program granted $725,000 for research that could lead to better treatments and possibly even cures. We funded 10 California researchers who are uncovering the basic mechanisms of lung disease.
Research Grants
Hui Dong, MD, Ph.D., at the University of California, San Diego, is examining cell mechanisms that could lead to the narrowing of the arteries that occurs in people with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension so new treatments could be developed that target the molecules controlling those mechanisms.
Susan Lynch, Ph.D., at the University of California, San Francisco, is identifying the types of bacteria present when people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) experience flare ups to determine the role they play in the disease.
Karen L. Oslund, DVM, Ph.D., at the University of California, Davis, is investigating the role of a protein that protects the lining of the airways after exposure to irritants like air pollution and causes inflammation to determine whether lungs that produce excess amounts are more resistant to injury.
Research Training Fellowships
Jun Araya, MD, Ph.D., at the University of California, San Francisco, is examining specific molecules in airway cells to determine how they affect changes in the airway wall that occur during inflammation so that new medicines can be developed that reduce the airway thickening that occurs with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Christoph Grundner, Ph.D., at the University of California, Berkeley, is investigating proteins that help tuberculosis bacterium “turn off” immune cells’ ability to kill bacterium in order to develop new treatments that target these proteins.
Samir Makani, MD, at the University of California, San Diego, is examining the immune system’s first-line defense response and its role in allergic inflammation so new treatments can be developed that prevent the domino effect that leads to an asthma episode.
Philippe Montgrain, MD, at the University of California, San Diego, is studying a hormone-related protein produced by about two-thirds of lung cancers, which slows tumor growth in mice and prolongs survival in women, to determine why it produces different results in men and women.
Ping-Hui Tseng, Ph.D., at the University of California, San Diego, is investigating proteins in the immune system that recognize infectious threats to the lungs but can also cause damage so that new therapies can be discovered that block the undesired response without affecting the proteins’ benefits.
Clinical Research Grants
Kamran Atabai, MD, at the University of California, San Francisco, is examining how a protein facilitates the removal of cells that are killed off in response to a lung injury in hopes of developing better treatments for fibrosis.
Other awards:
Randolph Hastings, MD, Ph.D., at the VA San Diego Healthcare System, received a Lung Cancer Discovery Award grant to study a hormone-related protein that is produced by about two-thirds of lung cancers and improves lung cancer rates in women to determine whether treatments already used for prostate cancer could also be effective for men with lung cancer that produces the protein. The Lung Cancer Discovery Award grant was co-funded by the American Lung Association and the LUNGevity Foundation.
The American Lung Association of California also awarded Pulmonary Nurse Scholarships to Samuel Kim, RN, at San Francisco State University, and Wonae Kim, RN, at the University of California, Los Angeles. Highly trained pulmonary nurses are critical to the specialized care needed by lung disease patients.
