The Role of Airway Morphology in Environmental LungDiseases

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ ABSTRACT Candidate: Coralynn Sack MD, MPH, plans for a career as a translational clinician scientist in the field of environmental lung diseases. The purpose of this award is to provide the essential support and training to help facilitate her transition to an independent investigator. Dr. Sack has assembled a team of inter-disciplinary mentors, led by Dr. Joel Kaufman, who are experts in air pollution epidemiology, toxicology, advanced imaging, airway characterization, biostatistics and translational science – skills that she hopes to further develop and refine during this proposed award. By incorporating formal coursework, personalized technical training and protected research time in a structured learning plan, she is ideally positioned to contribute substantially to our understanding of the impact of air pollution on lung health. Research: Exposure to environmental agents is a leading cause of chronic lung diseases and global mortality. Airway morphology may be an important determinant of disease pathobiology by modifying the site of deposition and internalized dose of environmental exposures. This proposal contains a thematically integrated set of epidemiologic and translational studies that seek to elucidate the role of the airway in environmental lung diseases. The objectives of the planned research include: 1) to determine whether airway characteristics modify the association between air pollution and COPD in a population based cohort and a cohort of individuals with COPD; 2) investigate the proposed mechanistic pathway using an experimental murine model. The work in this proposal examines a novel and important hypothesis related to susceptibility to environmental agents that could have significant public health implications. Environment: The University of Washington is an ideal setting for Dr. Sack’s research training. The resources and facilities available at UW are uniquely suited to the successful completion of this project, combining excellence in epidemiologic studies on air pollution with state-of-the art laboratory-based research. The research environment at UW is outstanding, with a strong commitment to furthering the academic careers of junior investigators. There is a long, published history of successful partnerships between the University and Dr. Sack’s collaborators at outside institutions. Dr. Sack will have support from the nationally renowned UW School of Public Health, the Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, and the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences.