More than 50 lung transplants are performed at Penn every year. Penn is the coordinating site for the Lung Transplant Outcomes Group Consortium, the multicentered lung transplant cohort study of over 1600 subjects, currently funded by several R01 grants. Faculty conducting research include Drs. Jason Christie, Vivek Ahya, Mary Porteous, and Josh Diamond. Several clinical and translational projects are currently active. These are funded by NIH and Industry grants. A translational Program Project is being planned that will focus on acute graft dysfunction and use the newly developed program in extracorporeal lung perfusion headed by Dr. Edward Cantu of Surgery.
Specific faculty research interests include:
- Edward Cantu, MD (Surgery)
- Extracorporeal Lung Evaluation
- Expansion of the donor pool through molecular assessment
- Jason Christie, MD, MSCE
- Dr. Christie is the founder of the lung transplant outcomes group (LTOG), which is a multicentered cohort study the etiology and pathogenesis of acute lung injury following lung transplantation (termed primary graft dysfunction), with over 2200 subjects enrolled. His research focuses on the role of oxidative stress, coagulation/fibrinolysis, inflammatory and innate immune pathways in primary graft dysfunction. This line of research is funded by several R01 grants from NHLBI, focusing on genetic risks, innate immunity, autoimmunity to lung-specific minor histocompatibility antigens, obesity, regulatory T cell function, and the effects of smoke exposure on donor
- Josh Diamond, MD, MS
- Mechanisms of chronic lung tansplant rejection, focusing on innate immunity
- Vladimir Muzykantov, MD, PhD (Pharmacology)
- Targeted drug delivery to the pulmonary vasculature for management of lung I/R