The Interstitial Lung Disease program, which has adopted a team science approach, leverages a large patient cohort, active wet-bench laboratory support, a dedicated research coordinator/technical staff, and collaborative faculty to conduct a wide variety of ILD related investigations. Dr. Maryl Kreider, Director of the ILD clinical program serves as lead clinical investigator. Drs. Greg Tino, Milt Rossman, and Mary Porteous conduct a variety of industry sponsored translational and clinical trials in IPF, lung-related collagen vascular diseases, and sarcoidosis that explore natural history, pathogenesis, and new drug therapies. Dr. Michael Beers serves as Scientific Director for the program and provides biobanking and lab support as well as conducts preclinical ILD studies. The program has been an active site for IPFnet sponsored research and is also recognized as a Center of Excellence by the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation (PFF), participating in PFF-initiated projects including development of a national pulmonary fibrosis registry.
Specific clinical projects include:
- Epidemiology and Identification of risk factors for the development of Interstitial Lung Diseases including aging (ILD Group)
- Drug trials with novel agents for the treatment of ILD and sarcoidosis (Drs. Kreider, Tino, and Rossman)
- Development of a clinical and biological sample repository (Drs. Kreider, Beers, and Porteous with the Center for Translational Lung Biology)
Specific translational and pre-clinical projects include:
- Role of T regulatory T cells in Sarcoidosis (Dr. Wayne Hancock (Pathology))
- Preclinical studies using novel mouse models of ILD (Dr. Beers)
- Translational studies using isolated primary lung epithelial and mesenchymal cells (Dr Beers with the Pulmonary Center for Lung Biology)