$2.7 Million Grant Awarded to Professor to Research Lung Injury Syndrome
The
National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of
Health (NIH) recently awarded a $2.7 million grant to David Christiani,
professor of occupational medicine and epidemiology, to study the molecular
epidemiology of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). The syndrome
describes a severe lung injury that results from a separate disease process,
usually a bad infection, said Christiani. People suffering from a urinary
tract infection that travels in the blood to the lungs, for example, can
develop ARDS. Exposure to chemicals in smoke also increases chances of
sickness. But only about one half of the people who are exposed to the
known risk factors actually develop the syndrome. Christiani and his colleagues
want to explore what makes one person more susceptible to ARDS than another.
Last year, ARDS claimed the lives of 170,000 Americans. Until recently,
the mortality rate of those who developed the syndrome hovered around
70 percent until improved procedures decreased the rate to a still-high 50 percent.
Joining Christiani are Joseph Paulauskis, assistant professor, Department of Environmental Health; Taylor Thompson, assistant professor at HMS and director of the Medical Intensive Care Unit at MGH; and Michelle Gong, research fellow in pulmonary pathophysiology at the Brigham and Women's Hospital/MGH.
