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Annual Reports
Message from the President The
Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation has made substantial Our foundation was a founding member of the Public Advisory Roundtable of the American Thoracic Society (ATS). This committee provides advice and input to the ATS regarding future plans and directions from the patient perspective. In addition, we are founding members of the Early and Accurate Detection of Pulmonary Fibrosis Network and the Rare Lung Disease Consortium. To increase the effectiveness of our efforts to find a cure for Pulmonary Fibrosis, we have formed research partnerships with the University of Chicago to set up a Center of Excellence which we pledged $1,000,000 to find a cure for Pulmonary Fibrosis. This is a three year program. The research started in November 2006 and has started to show significant results. (see below) Further, we are entering into a cooperative effort to investigate Pediatric Interstitial Lung Disease (PILD). At this time there is very little known about the incidence and understanding of this disease. The Foundation is providing support and expertise to a parents group of PILD children who are in the process of forming an association, which would provide help for the victims of this disease. Congressional Pressure is needed to increase National Institutes of Health funding for Pulmonary Fibrosis Research. It is extremely important that everyone write to Congress to get their support. The address of your senator can be found at www.senate.gov and your congressman can be found at www.congress.gov. As a result of our advocacy and influence, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) now has two ongoing research programs investigating Pulmonary Fibrosis at their headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland. Further, the NHLBI has established a Pulmonary Fibrosis Tissue Consortium to increase understanding of the pathogenetic mechanisms of this disease through molecular histopathological studies of human lung tissues with and without disease. In addition, the NHLBI has developed, as a consequence of our urging, a National Network for Clinical Research in Pulmonary Fibrosis. This network is composed of eleven of the top research centers in the United States. They have pledged $15,000,000 to finance this effort. We are in the process of setting up a stem cell research program at the University of Vermont. Stem cells are the only hope thus far of creating healthy lung tissue to replace that which has become scarred. We hope to devote $100,000 to this project. We have been assured that NIH funding will be available to help finance the cost of this undertaking. We will also be approaching the University of Michigan to help set up a research program there. Finally, we have created a Center of Excellence at the University of Chicago. This Center will be hiring the top researchers in the many scientific disciples that are involved in developing a greater understanding of the etiology of Pulmonary Fibrosis. These disciplines involve but are not limited to: Biology, Genetics, Epidemiology, Medicine and Statistics. We will be partnering with the University of Chicago School of Medicine in a Herculean effort to find a cure for this devastating disease. We all can be proud of these achievements as well as future initiatives and with your continued help and financial support we will find a cure for Pulmonary Fibrosis.
Michael Rosenzweig, Ph. D. To read our audit statement auditor's report Our
IRS Forms 990 are available online for the following years. Please
click on the appropriate year to view form:
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| Latest update November 21, 2007 |
