David Peden, MD, MS
Senior Associate Dean for Translational Research, UNC School of Medicine
Medical Director, Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma and Lung Biology
Harry S. Andrews Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics
About
Dr. Peden is a pediatric allergist and immunologist, with particular interest in inflammation, inflammatory disorders, and environmental exposures. His primary research focus is the impact of environmental agents and pollutants on respiratory and systemic inflammation and physiology, which impacts airway diseases such as asthma, COPD, inhalational injury and airway infections as well as triggering cardiovascular events. Efforts in Dr. Peden’s lab have led to identification of personal mitigation strategies (chemoprevention, personal monitoring) for pollutant-induced disease, and have provided scientific support for regulatory approaches to mitigate pollutant-induced disease at the state and national level. They have also identified and examined genetic, biological, behavioral and societal risk factors that increase risk for pollutant-induced disease.
Dr. Peden’s secondary research focus is examination of inflammatory processes and mechanisms in the respiratory tract and extending the basic scientific findings to humans. This includes developing and performing innovative and high quality pre-clinical and clinical investigation of novel treatments for lung and allergic diseases.
These research interests are broadly focused on the biology of airway and systemic inflammation and lung function in humans, with emphasis on asthma, allergic disease and immunological processes in the lung, employing translational, clinical and epidemiological methods to examine these questions with four interrelated foci of interest. Dr. Peden has also developed a number of model airway challenge protocols with ozone, endotoxin, particulate matter and allergen, which allows for screening of potential interventions, testing sensor devices, and identification/confirmation or genetic or physiologic risk factors for pollutant-induced and airway disease.