{"id":7159,"date":"2026-01-13T16:44:52","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T21:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/marsicolunginstitute\/?page_id=7159"},"modified":"2026-02-19T15:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T20:25:08","slug":"the-pulmonary-and-inhalation-research-core-pirc","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/marsicolunginstitute\/core-facilities\/the-pulmonary-and-inhalation-research-core-pirc\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pulmonary and Inhalation Research Core (PIRC)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Director, Animal Models and Mucosal Immunology:<\/strong> Alessandra Livraghi-Butrico, PhD<br \/>\n<strong>Director, Aerosol and Inhalation Research:<\/strong> Gregory Smith, PhD<\/p>\n<p>The mission of the Pulmonary and Inhalation Research Core Facility is to provide users with a comprehensive set of services to evaluate pulmonary health and disease associated with genetic alterations, inhaled toxicants, and experimental therapies in small animal models.<\/p>\n<p>We provide users with a range of disease models caused by genetic manipulations and\/or environmental exposure (e.g., allergens and air pollutants). We can administer challenges and\/or therapeutics via multiple routes (inhalation, bronchoscope-guided, intratracheal, oropharyngeal, and intranasal instillations, po, ip, iv).\u00a0 Our phenotyping services include assessment of pulmonary injury, inflammation, airway mucus obstruction and remodeling, as well as physiologic evaluation of lung function via multiple modalities (Flexivent, RC whole body or head out plethysmography).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pulmonary Disease Models<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Inhalation toxicology and pharmacology<\/li>\n<li>Genetic and environmentally-relevant models of pulmonary disease<\/li>\n<li>Infections and allergens<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Phenotyping<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cellular and biochemical assays<\/li>\n<li>Mucus burden and Secreted mucins characterization<\/li>\n<li>Histopathology and morphometry<\/li>\n<li>Plethysmography and pulmonary function tests<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>More information can be found at the Core\u2019s dedicated website: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/marsicolunginstitute\/pirc\/\">https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/marsicolunginstitute\/pirc\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Director, Animal Models and Mucosal Immunology: Alessandra Livraghi-Butrico, PhD Director, Aerosol and Inhalation Research: Gregory Smith, PhD The mission of the Pulmonary and Inhalation Research Core Facility is to provide users with a comprehensive set of services to evaluate pulmonary health and disease associated with genetic alterations, inhaled toxicants, and experimental therapies in small animal &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/marsicolunginstitute\/core-facilities\/the-pulmonary-and-inhalation-research-core-pirc\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about The Pulmonary and Inhalation Research Core (PIRC)\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80252,"featured_media":0,"parent":62,"menu_order":29,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-7159","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Pulmonary and Inhalation Research Core (PIRC) | Marsico Lung Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/marsicolunginstitute\/core-facilities\/the-pulmonary-and-inhalation-research-core-pirc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Pulmonary and Inhalation Research Core (PIRC) | Marsico Lung Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Director, Animal Models and Mucosal Immunology: Alessandra Livraghi-Butrico, PhD Director, Aerosol and Inhalation Research: Gregory Smith, PhD The mission of the Pulmonary and Inhalation Research Core Facility is to provide users with a comprehensive set of services to evaluate pulmonary health and disease associated with genetic alterations, inhaled toxicants, and experimental therapies in small animal &hellip; 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