September 27, 2005

Contacts:
Andy Weisser, (818) 703-6444, aweisser@earthlink.net
www.californialung.org
or your local American Lung Association at (800) LUNG-USA

American Lung Association of California Grants Nearly $1 Million to Lung Disease Research

Nearly $600,000 Awarded to 17 Researchers in California; Studies Include Asthma, Lung Cancer, and Influenza

(September 27, 2005 Oakland, CA) The American Lung Association of California granted nearly $1 million to lung disease research recently, funding 17 scientists in California who are conducting basic research into the mechanisms of disease and 20 Asthma Clinical Research Centers across the country.

“Basic research drives our understanding of disease,” said Michael Keane, MD, chair of the American Lung Association of California’s Research Review Committee. “Basic research is the foundation of medical practice because it leads to better treatments.”

The association awarded nearly $600,000 through its peer-reviewed scientific research program, including two Pulmonary Nurse Scholarships. Every year the American Lung Association of California reviews applications from researchers and nursing students across the state and grants up to $50,000 to research projects that meet its guidelines and up to $6,000 to master’s level nursing students who are pursuing careers in pulmonary care. The association primarily funds basic research, which forms the building blocks for future discoveries.

More than $383,000 went to support the American Lung Association’s nationwide network of Asthma Clinical Research Centers, including one at the University of California, San Diego. It’s the country’s largest not-for-profit network of clinical research centers dedicated to asthma.

American Lung Association-funded researchers have produced major discoveries over the years, including uncovering the importance of surfactant in the lungs, which led to a dramatic increase in survival rates for premature babies. Basic research has also resulted in more effective treatments for asthma and other chronic lung diseases.

Juliana Oh, Ph.D., hopes that someday her research into a gene that suppresses tumor growth will eventually help reduce lung cancer deaths. It seems the suppressor gene is not present in people who get lung cancer, allowing lung cancer tumors to grow. Oh thinks the carcinogens in tobacco somehow destroy the tumor-suppressor gene in some people.

“When people smoke, the region of the chromosome containing this suppressor gene may get deleted,” Oh said. “The significance is that if we could figure out how to test for this gene in smokers as well as lung cancer patients, the lack of it would suggest higher likelihood of developing lung cancer and/or poorer prognosis. It would allow physicians to detect lung cancer development before any tumors have the opportunity to grow.”

It may also be possible to eventually use the gene to treat cancer after it has been diagnosed.

“If we can somehow add it back to lung cancer patients, it could be a way to slow tumor growth,” Oh explained. “That’s the long-shot idea behind gene therapy.”

The American Lung Association of California launched its research program in 1958. In the last decade alone, nearly $5 million has been granted to scientists in California.

The association currently awards research grants in three categories representing various stages in an investigator’s career. Research Training Fellowships are for researchers in training, while Research Grants and Clinical Research Grants are for new investigators who are not yet established.

“Continued research is important because we don’t have effective treatments for many lung diseases and most of the treatments we do have only control symptoms, they are not cures,” Dr. Keane said. “Diseases like asthma and lung cancer have seen dramatic increases in the last few decades, but it’s hard to know why until we understand what’s really going on with the disease.”

Californians can invest in lung disease research through their California state income tax returns by contributing to the Asthma and Lung Disease Research Fund. The fund supports the American Lung Association of California’s research program.

This year’s Research Grants include:

John Faul, MD, at Stanford University, is investigating how certain components of the immune system control a virus that is a significant cause of chronic lung rejection after a transplant to predict patient outcomes and design alternative treatments to prevent irreversible lung damage.

Vedang Londhe, MD, at the University of California, Los Angeles, is studying whether exposure to infection in the womb is a potential cause for bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), found mostly in premature babies, so that eventually BPD can be prevented.

Juliana Oh, Ph.D., at the University of California, Los Angeles, is examining a gene not present in people with lung cancer that suppresses the growth of lung cancer tumors to better understand the tumor suppression mechanism so that new diagnostic and therapeutic techniques can be developed.

Beatrice Saviola, Ph.D., at Western University of Health Sciences, is studying how the bacterium that causes tuberculosis can sense environmental stresses and resist them in order to survive in the body so that new therapies can be developed that target this mechanism and make the bacterium more sensitive to the immune system’s defenses.

Daya Upadhyay, MD, at Stanford University, is investigating a specific growth factor that promotes lung development and prevents injury to better understand the molecular basis for acute respiratory distress syndrome and lung scarring.

This year’s Research Training Fellowships include:

Temitayo Ajayi, MD, at the University of California, San Francisco, is investigating a virulent strain of pneumonia in hopes of developing a clinical tool for identifying it in hospitalized respiratory patients.

Cherilyn Elwell, Ph.D., at the University of California, San Francisco, is investigating the role of chlamydia pneumoniae, a human pathogen that causes lung disease, and the “host genes” that help it spread to provide a basis for novel therapies and vaccines to combat the pathogen.

Husein Hadeiba, Ph.D., at Stanford University , is evaluating the effects of influenza A virus infection on airway hyperreactivity to better understand the mechanisms that protect against asthma to see if viruses can someday help guard against asthma.

Stephen Lee, MD, University of California, San Diego, is studying a select group of patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension who underwent pulmonary thromboendarterectomy surgeries from 1990 through 2002 to determine significant predictors of survival and gather information about risk and prognosis.

Liu Ming, MD, Ph.D., at the University of California, Los Angeles, is investigating how two specific growth factors stimulate the production of a protein reported to play an important role in lung cancer development to determine whether controlling these growth factors could slow cancer growth.

Geraldine Mollet, Ph.D., at the University of California, San Francisco, is examining the role of a molecule in regulating a protein that contributes to the development of excessive lung tissue growth in pulmonary fibrosis so that treatments can be developed to target this molecule.

Fiona Murray, Ph.D., at the University of California, San Diego, is studying a chemical in the body that dilates blood vessels and the two enzymes that control it to eventually find better medications for primary pulmonary hypertension, which causes blood vessels that supply the lungs to constrict.

Roland Nador, MD, at Stanford University, is investigating whether a combination of selective radiation treatment, injection of a substance that depletes immune cells, and bone marrow cell infusion from the organ donor can reduce organ rejection after a lung transplant.

Mark Travis, Ph.D., at the University of California, San Francisco, is examining how a protein found on the surface of nearly all cells can activate another protein that plays an important role in both pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary edema to find novel therapies for controlling these lung diseases.

Hui-Ju Tsai, MPH, Ph.D., at the University of California, San Francisco, is evaluating the genetic risk factors of asthma in African Americans, who have been hit especially hard by the lung disease, to better identify genetic and environmental risk factors for asthma morbidity and mortality in African Americans.

This year’s Clinical Research Grant includes:

Esteban Burchard, MD, at the University of California, San Francisco, is studying genetic predisposition for asthma by looking at asthma prevalence in different Latino subgroups to identify clinical and genetic risk factors and identify genes that contribute to asthma.

Michael Oldham, Ph.D., at the University of California, Irvine, is quantifying the effect that growth and development of the upper airways has on the deposition of particulate matter air pollution in the airways and lungs of children and adolescents.

Pulmonary Nurse Scholarships were awarded to Elika Derakshandeh, RN, and Rebecca Menza, RN, both at the University of California, San Francisco.

For 100 years, the American Lung Association has been the lead organization working to prevent lung disease and promote lung health. Lung disease death rates continue to increase while other leading causes of death have declined. The American Lung Association funds vital research on the causes of and treatments for lung disease. With the generous support of the public, the American Lung Association is “Improving life, one breath at a time.” For more information about the American Lung Association or to support the work it does, call 1.800.LUNG.USA (1.800.586.4872) or visit www.californialung.org or www.lungusa.org.call 1-800-LUNG-USA (1-800-586-4872) or visit www.californialung.org.