Dr. Bain’s research goal is to improve understanding of how the lung interacts with and employs cellular and humoral elements of innate immunity to combat pathogens and manage injury. He is currently focused upon two research questions. First, how do platelets and platelet factors attenuate lung injury during pathogen-mediated lung injury with particular attention to the role of platelet released factors in providing protection to alveolar epithelium? Second, what are mechanisms by which alternative complement pathway function supports host defense and patient survival during critical illness with acute respiratory failure?

Mehret Birru Talabi, MD PhD is a physician investigator in rheumatology and clinical immunology. She is a graduate of Kenyon College, and received her MD, PhD in Epidemiology, and internal medicine and rheumatology subspecialty training at the University of Pittsburgh and at UPMC. Her research focuses on the intersection of rheumatology and women’s health, with a specific interest in enhancing reproductive outcomes among people with rheumatic diseases. She is an Assistant Dean and Co-Director of the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) in the School of Medicine and is the associate program director of the UPMC rheumatology fellowship. 

Dr. Braganza-Jardini’s research seeks to understand the role of the mitochondria and the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) of platelets in aging. Andrea hypothesizes that aging induces changes in the expression of a key mitochondrial protein, mitofusin-1 (MFN1) than in turn produces increased mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mtROS) and modulates the function of the UPS to enhance platelet activation and lead to an increased risk of thrombosis. In addition to studying the changes in these pathways in platelets from young and old human subjects, she has created a novel MFN1^-/- platelet-specific mouse model from which she will isolate platelets and modulate their function to determine how loss of MFN1 directly affects platelet activation and aggregation. Andrea hopes that the results from these studies can be translationally used to treat and prevent age-related thrombosis.

Dr. Eisele’s research focuses on age-related protein misfolding disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and transthyretin-related amyloidoses. In these diseases, the misfolding of specific proteins on one hand leads to the loss of the normal function of these proteins, but on the other hands also to aberrant interactions of the misfolded proteins with normal cellular function, which ultimately leads to the degeneration of affected tissue. Therefore, Dr. Eisele investigates what factors favor protein misfolding, how exactly the misfolding occurs and what cytotoxic consequences arise from it. A particular focus is on so-called oligomers, i.e. smaller protein aggregates that are presumably particularly cytotoxic when formed. Ongoing projects focus on cardiac transthyretin-related amyloidosis, transthyretin-related cerebral amyloid angiopathy and delineating cytotoxic consequences of Abeta oligomers in the context of Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Evankovich studies the molecular biology of lung injury. His laboratory is interested in the intersection of three molecular systems in the innate immune system, and how they influence inflammation and cell death pathways in the lung. The molecular systems are Damage Associated Molecular Patterns (DAMPs), DAMP Receptors, and the Ubiquitin/Proteasome System (UPS).

Dr. Evankovich’s prior work has identified how several novel DAMP/DAMP receptor pairs are processed for disposal in the UPS, and how this process can be manipulated to change subsequent cellular responses. For damaging responses, increasing targeted DAMP receptor disposal through the UPS could lessen organ damage; likewise, for protective DAMP/DAMP receptor pairs, reducing disposal in the UPS could be therapeutic to reduce injury.

Teaming with the Small Molecule Therapeutics Center, Dr. Evankovich’s future work aims to discover novel small molecules to disrupt these pathways and test in preclinical models of lung injury. He is also an Associate Member of the Aging Institute, where he focuses on the contribution of aging to innate immune responses in the lung.

My research interest lies in infectious complications among immunocompromised hosts, primarily organ transplant recipients and patients with hematological malignancies. My K23 award focuses on the changes in the gut microbiome among lung or liver transplant recipients as they develop colonization or infection with multidrug-resistant organisms. My hope is to use this knowledge to conduct clinical trials of novel therapies such as fecal microbiota transplant or bacteriophages to treat drug-resistant organisms in these patients. I also have an interest in COVID-19 in this patient population, particularly oncology patients who are at risk for protracted SARS-CoV-2 replication and intra-host viral evolution.

My research has focused on the molecular modulation of cardiomyocyte homeostasis and cardiac metabolism. My postgraduate research has been investigating the function of Tead1, a downstream effector of Hippo pathway, where I have identified the imperative roles of Tead1 in the maintenance of normal adult heart contractility. This effort utilized a cardiac-specific inducible Tead1 knock-out allele and demonstrated Tead1’s critical function in sarcoplasmic reticulum Calcium homeostasis (Liu et al., JCI Insight, 2017). In line with the crucial role of Hippo pathway in proliferation, I also demonstrated the requirement of Tead1 in modulating perinatal cardiomyocyte replication (Liu et al., PLos One, 2019). Subsequently, I discovered that mitochondrial dysfunction also underlies an important aspect regulated by Tead1 in the pathogenesis of cardiomyopathy (Liu et al., Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physio, 2020). By extension, my mechanistic studies of Tead1 and its regulation of mitochondrial quality control processes were funded by the American Heart Association’s Career Development Award in 2019 for a three-year period titled “Tead1 as a Novel Regulator of Mitochondrial Function in Cardiomyocytes”.

I started to build my own research team and establish my independent scientific career by exploring regulatory factors of Hippo pathway signaling and interactive factors of Tead1, which led to the discovery of a novel factor—C5x (unpublished). Using conditional C5x cardiomyocyte specific knockout mouse models, my team identified the surprisingly critical functionality of C5x as a modulator of cardiomyocyte turnover and heart size. Given my interests in cardiomyocyte cell cycle progression, hypertrophy, and regeneration, I hope to establish an independent research program based on studies of this novel factor and to explore its therapeutic potential in heart disease.

Dr. Puttarajappa’s research is focused on evaluating the role of virtual HLA crossmatch for deceased donor kidney transplantation(DDKT). Several logistical issues complicate kidney allocation and organ placement, thereby increasing ischemia times and risk of organ discards. Dr. Puttarajappa is investigating the potential benefits of omitting a cell-based (physical) HLA crossmatch and proceeding to transplant surgery with just the result of a virtual HLA crossmatch. He is using a combination of transplant registry analysis, survey methodology and decision analysis to evaluate the impact of virtual HLA crossmatch on cold ischemia time and transplant outcomes, variation in practice across US transplant centers and the risks and benefits of using a virtual crossmatch strategy over a cell-based HLA crossmatch strategy. His other research interests include application of decision and cost-effectiveness analyses to transplantation and evaluating methods to reduce detrimental impact of modifiable post-transplant events such as late-onset CMV infection and immunosuppression non-adherence.

Our laboratory studies electrolyte balance in the body, including sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and acid/base. We are exploring the influence of these electrolytes on body fluid, blood pressure, bone health and immune function.

Dr. Rogal is a gastroenterologist, transplant hepatologist, and implementation scientist. Her K23 work focuses on using Intervention Mapping to develop a patient-centered approach to pain self-management for people with cirrhosis. She also conducts national, mixed methods implementation work in the VA, developing novel methods for measuring and delivering data-driven combinations of implementation strategies to improve the quality and equity of healthcare. She serves as the co-developer and co-Director of the Pitt Dissemination and Implementation Science Collaborative (DISC), co-Director of the VA Implementation Core of the Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion and the Pitt CTSI’s IMPACT and Implementation Lab cores.

Dr. Saloman is a basic and translational researcher with diverse research focuses on the intersection between the peripheral nervous system and organ function, including under normal and pathological conditions such as pancreatitis, cancer, and chronic pain. Her K-related research is a two-pronged approach aimed at dissecting the underlying mechanisms contributing to the diverse pain patterns associated with chronic pancreatitis. She is utilizing patient recorded outcomes and biochemical analysis of serum in combination with her novel optogenetic animal model. The goal of these studies is to parse out signaling pathways that can be targeted for novel approaches to pain management. More information about her research can be found at salomanlab.pitt.edu.

My research focuses on the role of aging and aging-related conditions in hereditary bleeding disorders, specifically von Willebrand disease and hemophilia. My K23 award explores the effect of aging on von Willebrand factor levels and bleeding phenotype in von Willebrand disease.

Recently, Dr. Snyder identified that lung donor memory T cells, the predominant cell in the adaptive immune system, survive following transplantation and persist for weeks to months in the recipient. Furthermore, this survival of donor T cells is associated with improved short-term outcomes. Additionally, they found that lung allograft-infiltrating, recipient-derived T cells which migrate to the lungs following transplantation take up residency within the lung. His lab is focusing on determining the function and specificity of these tissue-resident memory T cells and if they are contributing to chronic rejection.

In addition to lung transplantation, the Snyder lab is actively investigating the role of tissue resident memory T cells on pulmonary fibrosis and chronic airway inflammation in human lungs.

Dr. Thomas seeks to conduct innovative, interdisciplinary, patient-centered clinical research that will improve the health and quality of life of women as they age. In particular, she is interested in understanding the physical and psychosocial factors that contribute to sexual dysfunction in midlife and older women and using this understanding to develop behavioral treatment options for this population.

 I am interested in the host-pathogen interaction during pneumonia. I use murine models of pneumonia with pathogens such as Klebsiella and Streptococcus pneumoniae. My first interest is the contribution of IL-22/IL-22R1 signaling in the lung epithelium to control infectious processes. A second interest is in the negative regulation of inflammation during pneumonia through the RNA binding protein Regnase-1. For that we are analyzing the effects of Regnase-1 deficiency in different lung populations during pneumonia.

My main research interests are to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the development, disease, and senescence of heart cells, and to develop potential therapeutic strategies to rectify pathogenesis and aging in the heart. We utilize human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSCs) platform and cutting-edge molecular, cellular, and physiological technologies to study the biology of heart cells in health and diseases, and to discover novel drugs and approaches for translational applications.

Dr. Anna Zemke is a physician-scientist in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine.  Her research interest focuses on the host-pathogen biology of chronic airway infections.   She has two ongoing scientific projects.  First, chronic sinus disease affects almost all people with cystic fibrosis due to ongoing cycles of inflammation and chronic bacterial infections.  Dr. Zemke is PI of a two-site study determining the effect of the new highly effect corrector modulators on CF sinus disease symptoms and microbiology in individuals age 6 and up.  Second, Dr. Zemke will be conducting an observational cohort study on natural history and host-pathogen biology of tracheobronchitis in the Long-Term Acute Care population.