Transplantation Immunology

Program Description

The Transplantation Immunology Program is dedicated to a greater understanding of the basic biology of transplantation of the lung allograft. This multidisciplinary program incorporates surgical, immunologic, and medical expertise in the care and research of patients with end-stage lung disease who undergo lung transplantation. Our program also takes great pride in hypothesis testing through novel laboratory study of human samples, and randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials.

Research Team

The program research faculty includes Dr. Joseph Pilewski, Dr. Bruce Johnson, Dr. Timothy Corcoran, Dr. John McDyer, Dr. Silpa Kilaru, and Dr. Matt Pipeling.

Dr. Joseph Pilewski’s research centers of Cystic Fibrosis and other suppurative lung diseases, both pre- and post-transplant. He works towards improving post-transplant outcomes particularly in this patient population, including in patients who are colonized with drug resistant organisms. He also serves as principal  investigator of a lung tissue bank that makes explanted lung samples available to investigators studying Cystic Fibrosis and other end stage lung diseases. Lastly, he is collaborating with Dr. Andrej Petrov on studies of hypogammaglobulinemia in lung transplant recipients.

Dr. Bruce Johnson has been a leader in clinical therapeutic studies in drugs to prevent rejection. He helped develop the first inhaled anti-rejection medication, inhaled cyclosporine, a drug taken from the bench to the bedside at the University of Pittsburgh (See The Cyclosporine Story), and is co-principal investigator on the current Phase III Multicenter randomized control trial entitled “A Multi-Center, Randomized, Controlled Study to Demonstrate the Efficacy and Safety of Cyclosporine Inhalation Solution (CIS) in Improving Bronchiolitis Obliterans Syndrome-Free Survival Following Lung Transplantation.” Dr. Johnson also performed a phase IV trial examining mycophenolic sodium (Myfortic) versus mycophenolate mofetil (Cellcept), and found that Myfortic was associated with a decreased incidence of nausea and upper GI distress. Dr. Johnson started his transplant clinical research career assisting Dr. Steve Duncan in the first prospective, randomized controlled drug treatment trial ever in the history of lung transplantation. Finally, Drs. Johnson and Duncan were the first to report recurrence of a pre-transplant disease in lung allografts and the first to report an association between statin use and improved survival in lung transplant recipients.

Dr. Timothy Corcoran’s research focuses on the effective delivery of inhaled medications for the treatment of a variety of lung diseases.  This includes a longstanding commitment to the development of inhaled immunosuppressants and anti-infective medications for lung transplant recipients.  He has performed a series of studies using radiolabels to study the deposition of inhaled cyclosporine in lung transplant recipients. Dr. Corcoran has also been involved in the development of new technologies to improve the performance of inhaled medications for cystic fibrosis patients.  He has developed new nuclear-medicine based imaging techniques for determining the efficacy of medications for the treatment of cystic fibrosis. He has also helped to develop new inhaled medications for use by the United States Army.