2018
The I.M. Rosenzweig Junior Investigator Award Winners
The I.M. Rosenzweig Junior Investigator Award was established to encourage researchers to maintain and enhance their interest in PF research during the early stages of their academic career.
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Ayodeji Adegunsoye, MD
The University of Chicago
Proposal Title: Impact of Race on Genetic Predisposition to Radiologic Honeycombing in Pulmonary Fibrosis
This proposal is funded by Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc
Dr. Adegunsoye is a Clinical Instructor in the Section of Pulmonary and Critical Care at the University of Chicago. He attended the University of Ibadan medical school in Nigeria, completed residency training in Internal Medicine at Drexel University, and trained at the University of Chicago Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship Program. While working under Dr. Mary Strek and Dr. Imre Noth during his fellowship, Dr. Adegunsoye identified unique clinical phenotypes among racially diverse patient cohorts with pulmonary fibrosis. His current research focuses on utilizing genetic data from diverse races to improve the clinical decision-making process and outcomes for patients with pulmonary fibrosis. -
Konstantinos-Dionysios Alysandratos, MD, PhD
Trustees of Boston University, BU Medical Campus
Proposal Title: Utilizing a pluripotent stem cell model system to unravel the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis
Dr. Alysandratos obtained his medical degree and doctoral degree in Immunopharmacology from the University of Athens in Greece. He completed Internal Medicine training at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas TX, followed by clinical fellowships in Sleep and Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine at Boston University, where he was recruited as a physician-scientist at the rank of Assistant Professor in Medicine.
Under the mentorship of Dr. Darrell Kotton at the Center for Regenerative Medicine of Boston University and Boston Medical Center, Dr. Alysandratos is developing a pluripotent stem cell (PSC) model to study the role of alveolar type 2 (AT2) cell dysfunction in the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis, exemplified by interstitial lung diseases that are associated with surfactant protein-C mutations.
Dr. Alysandratos has received many honors and awards, including the Basic Science Award from the American Lung Association, an Abstract Scholarship and Fellows Track Symposium Award from the American Thoracic Society, and a Research Prize and Award from the Boston University Clinical and Translational Science Institute. As a resident he became a voted member of the AΩA Medical Honor Society.
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Linlin Gu, PhD
The University of Alabama at Birmingham
Proposal Title: Metabolic reprogramming and mitochondrial biogenesis are regulated by macrophage MCU in pulmonary fibrosis
Dr. Linlin Gu is a researcher scientist in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He received his DVM and Ph.D. in the College of Veterinary Medicine, Yangzhou University, China. During his postdoctoral training in Dr. A. Brent Carter’s laboratory, he focused on investigating molecular mechanisms that lung macrophages utilize to induce the development and progression of pulmonary fibrosis. Dr. Gu found that the mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU), by regulating mitochondrial calcium influx, mediated pro-fibrotic polarization of lung macrophages that contributed to fibrosis progression. He has extended these studies to uncover that the regulation of macrophage bioenergetics by MCU facilitates macrophage apoptosis resistance in the development of pulmonary fibrosis.
The Albert Rose Established Investigator Award Winners
Created to allow established investigators to explore novel, innovative areas of research, the Albert Rose Established Investigator Award provides critical support to the development of new projects, and enables the investigator to pursue additional funding through the National Institutes of Health or other agencies. Two $50,000 grants are awarded per annual cycle, disbursed over a two-year period.
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Nabeel Hamzeh, MD
The University of Iowa
Proposal Title: CD4 T-cell immunephenotype in hypersenstivity pneumonitis
This proposal is funded by Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Dr. Hamzeh is an Associate Professor at the University of Iowa in the division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Occupational medicine. He is the director of the interstitial lung disease program. His clinical and research interests focus on granulomatous lung diseases, specifically sarcoidosis and hypersensitivity pneumonitis. His research explores the pathophysiology of sarcoidosis with the goal of introducing novel diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic agents to the clinic. His work focuses on the:
i) role of genetics and epigenetics in sarcoidosis disease activity
ii) diagnosis and management of cardiac sarcoidosis
iii) role of humoral immunity in sarcoidosis pathogenesis and
iv) the immune response in hypersensitivity pneumonitis.