Author Archives: ecroe

Marsico Lung Institute researchers Kevin Schichlein, PhD, Ilona Jaspers, PhD, and Bradley Drummond, MD, MHS, report that taking vitamin D orally has repeatedly failed to improve outcomes for people with chronic lung diseases. Inhaling vitamin D directly into the airways could offer a more effective, targeted treatment. Read the full...

Tim Smyth, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow working with Ilona Jaspers, PhD, in UNC’s Curriculum in Toxicology & Environmental Medicine, was featured on LinkedIn for his recent publication in Toxicological Sciences. In the spotlight, Dr. Smyth talks about his work to “integrate large scale pulmonary single cell RNA-seq datasets.” The LinkedIn spotlight...

Marsico Lung Institute faculty, postdoc, student, and collaborator publications for April 2026 (and a couple stragglers from March) included papers appearing in American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Nature Communications, and Chest. Check out the full list below: Hong G, Vesely EM, Memon W, Walsh J, Hsu JY,...

Stephen Schworer, MD, PhD, was consulted for an article appearing in Everyday Health that provided a list of daily habits useful in managing hereditary angioedema (HAE), a genetic condition that can cause severe swelling in various parts of the body, including the airways. The article is called “8 Daily Rituals to...

Marsico Lung Institute faculty, postdoc, student, and collaborator publications for April 2026 (and a couple stragglers from March) included papers appearing in Trends in Genetics, Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology, and Journal of Clinical Investigation. Check out the full list below: Smyth TR, Brocke S, Wu W, An Z,...

Melissa Haendel, PhD, FACMI, was consulted for an article in E+ELeader on the “promise and risks” of artificial intelligence (AI) in North Carolina. In the article, Haendel points out that AI may be able to “help advance clinical trials of new drugs that are often slowed down or delayed by the...

Melissa Haendel, PhD, FACMI, was among those participating in the inaugural AI for Public Good conference, hosted by UNC. Dr. Haendel took part in a panel entitled “AI for Health, Discovery and Resilience,” where she spoke on the possibility of using AI to improve diagnoses and, thus, get patients the...

Marsico Lung Institute faculty, postdoc, student, and collaborator publications for March 2026 included papers appearing in Science, Microbiome, and Journal of Clinical Investigation. Check out the full list below: Bathgate CJ, Smith ED, Murphy NH, Quittner AL, Riekert KA, Goralski JL, Holm KE. Stress management reduces severe depression and anxiety...

In a new paper published in Science, researchers propose treating health data as essential national infrastructure, balancing patient empowerment, privacy, innovation, and public good. Melissa Haendel, PhD, Marsico Lung Institute member and the Sarah Graham Kenan Distinguished Professor of genetics, was first author on the paper. Read the full story...

Marsico Lung Institute faculty, postdoc, student, and collaborator publications for February 2026 included papers appearing in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (with a cover image by Marsico’s Stephen Schworer, MD, PhD, et al), Journal of Neuroinflammation, and Annals of the American Thoracic Society. Check out the...