Category: News

The 2025 NACFC took place in Seattle, WA from October 21–25. Our lab was well represented—Dr. Okuda co-chaired a Lunch & Learn session, and Drs. Murano, Stevens, and De Ganzo shared their exciting new data through oral and poster presentations.

Our collaborative manuscript, titled “Airway Epithelial Heterogeneity and Mucus Plugging in Asthmatic Bronchioles,” has been published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. In this study, we examine the pathological and molecular characteristics of asthma bronchioles (small airways). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40986379/

We are excited to announce that our research proposal, focusing on the inflammation-induced loss of distal airway secretory cells in CF, has been awarded funding for the next two years by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Dr. Murano has been awarded the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Award for “Mechanisms Driving the Loss of Small Airway Epithelial Identity and its Consequences in CF Pathophysiology”

Dr. Stevens has been awarded a Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Award for his project titled ‘Disrupted lipid metabolism and small airway dysfunction by chronic hypoxia in CF’

Kenichi Okuda, MD, PhD, has been awarded a $2.83M, five year, grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) for his project, “Mucociliary innate defense mechanism in the human distal airway.” Read the full story here.