Category: News

The US Department of Defense tabbed UNC Marsico Lung Institute researchers led by Richard Boucher, MD, and Ilona Jaspers, PhD, to study the adverse effects of inhaling toxic fumes from burn pits in the field. Read the full story here.

In a new video, UNC School of Medicine toxicologist Ilona Jaspers, PhD, explains the science of inhaling vapor from e-cigarette products and why we should not compare vaping or “juuling” to smoking. See the video and full article here.

UNC School of Medicine and Duke University researchers, led by Brian Button, PhD, show why coughing can’t force mucus free from airways to help people battle cystic fibrosis and chronic bronchitis, and how new treatments could alter mucus to make coughing more therapeutic. Read the full story here.

James F. Donohue, MD, from the Division of Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine, has been recognized in this week’s Carolina Care Highlights. See the full story here.

At the recent North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference in Denver, George Retsch-Bogart, MD, professor of pediatrics and co-director of the UNC Cystic Fibrosis Therapeutics Development Center, received the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s 2018 Richard C. Talamo Distinguished Clinical Achievement Award. Read the full story here.

New UNC School of Medicine research led by Martina Gentzsch, PhD, and Carla Ribeiro, PhD, suggests that cystic fibrosis drugs used to correct the faulty CFTR protein would work better when the patients’ airways are inflamed. Read the fully story here.

Ilona Jaspers, PhD, was featured as a guest expert on a NIEHS podcast about e-cigarettes and teenagers. Read the full story here.

Michelle Hernandez, MD, associate medical director of the N.C. Children’s Allergy & Asthma Center, led a study that followed 23 asthma patients in North Carolina to show that even with optimized treatment for persistent asthma, patients experienced respiratory and systemic effects from exposure to low levels of ozone. Read the...

Lung cell impairment can occur with exposure to e-cigarettes, but other short and long-term effects of vaping remain unknown. Read the full story here.

Ilona Jaspers, PhD, Deputy Director of the Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma and Lung Biology, is featured in the August 15th Reuters article “Adult smokers more apt to use e-cigarettes than nonsmokers,” which can be found here.