{"id":2251,"date":"2020-10-16T13:02:51","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T17:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/mocklab\/?page_id=2251"},"modified":"2026-04-23T14:02:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:02:46","slug":"research-statement","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/mocklab\/research-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"Research"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Our research interests focus on investigating the reparative processes critical to the resolution of acute lung injury. Acute events such as pneumonia, inhalational injury, trauma, or sepsis often damage the lung, impeding its primary function, gas exchange. The clinical syndrome these events can lead to is termed Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). ARDS is a common pulmonary disease often seen and treated in intensive care units. Despite decades of research into the pathogenesis underlying the development of ARDS, mortality remains high. Our laboratory has built upon exciting observations by our group and others regarding the importance of lung repair after injury. One type of white blood cell, the Foxp3<sup>+<\/sup> regulatory T cell (Treg), appears essential for resolving ARDS in experimental models of lung injury by modulating immune responses and enhancing alveolar epithelial proliferation and tissue repair. Importantly, Tregs are present in patients with ARDS, and our lab has found that subsets of Tregs may play a role in recovery from ARDS.<\/p>\n<p>Current areas of investigation include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Determining the role of Treg-expressed matrix metalloproteinase 12 (MMP12) in regulating the turnover of the extracellular matrix, in processing chemotactic signals that promote resolution of acute lung injury, and in other described MMP functions. The localization of Tregs within the alveoli may confer specific and vital functions to Treg-expressed MMP12 in these microenvironments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Investigating the role of specific Treg populations during ALI resolution and testing the hypothesis that potential mechanisms include the proliferation of lung-resident Tregs (either thymically-derived or peripherally-induced) and recruitment of Tregs from sites outside the lung.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Determining if resolution can be accelerated by enhancing Treg expansion through proliferation, retention, stability, and\/or survival. We are testing the hypothesis that a more robust Treg response accelerates the resolution process and improves the quality of lung repair.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Identifying the effects of endogenous and exogenous glucocorticoids acting through Tregs on the resolution of lung injury and the contribution of host genetic variability through which Tregs promote reparative processes and their response to glucocorticoids\n<ul>\n<li>To determine the contribution of glucocorticoids to Treg-mediated aspects of resolution of ALI.<\/li>\n<li>To assess the impact of host variation on glucocorticoid response in the resolution of ALI in CC mice and the effect on Treg effector mechanisms<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our research interests focus on investigating the reparative processes critical to the resolution of acute lung injury. Acute events such as pneumonia, inhalational injury, trauma, or sepsis often damage the lung, impeding its primary function, gas exchange. The clinical syndrome these events can lead to is termed Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). ARDS is a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/mocklab\/research-statement\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Research\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35778,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-2251","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","odd"],"acf":[],"_links_to":[],"_links_to_target":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/mocklab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/mocklab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/mocklab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/mocklab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35778"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/mocklab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/mocklab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2619,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/mocklab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2251\/revisions\/2619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/mocklab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}