SQLIFTS Technology Program
Emerging technologies allow an understanding of the biology of lung disease at a molecular level. We are applying these technologies to develop biomarkers and therapies for personalized medicine."
Director, SQLIFTS Technology Program
Associate Professor of Medicine (Pulmonary & Critical Care)
Our Mission
Through the application of technology, the Simpson Querrey Lung Institute for Translational Science (SQLIFTS) Technology Program develops biomarkers and therapies for personalized pulmonary medicine.
Emerging technologies allow an understanding of the spatial and molecular basis for human disease at unprecedented resolution. From a single section of lung tissue, we can now unravel the transcriptome and epigenome of each individual cell, measure the expression of hundreds of proteins all within the spatial context in health or disease. Technologies are now emerging that let us query metabolism in these same tissues, adding a level of physiology to our measurements.
High-resolution pathology must be interpreted in the context of the patient’s clinical course. Hence, a major focus of the program is to develop tools to extract and analyze data from the electronic health record using machine learning approaches. In this way the detailed molecular pathology obtained during clinical care, which is necessarily sparse, can be interpreted with clinical measures that include data from imaging, clinical visits and even wearables to develop personalized approaches to the care of patients with lung disease.
Meet Our Director
Alexander Misharin, MD, PhD, has led the application of genomic technologies to the study of lung disease. His laboratory published the first single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis of the normal and fibrotic human lung. He led the Chan Zuckerberg Human Lung Cell Atlas project, which has integrated data across laboratories worldwide to create a molecular atlas of the more than 40 distinct cell populations that comprise the lung. He is actively engaged in the application of genomic technologies toward the understanding of lung disease.
Request Access to Biotechnology & Medical Technology at Northwestern
A major goal of the program is to share technologies validated in the lung with investigators across the Northwestern Medicine research enterprise. Those with an interest in these technologies should email our director, Alexander Misharin, MD, PhD, or contact the institute.