Introducing Neu-Lung, the First U19 of SQLIFTS

The Simpson Querrey Lung Institute for Translational Sciences (SQLIFTS) is proud to announce that it is the home of a newly awarded National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) U19 Cooperative Center in Human Immunology: The Neu-Lung Consortium: Neutrophilic Mechanisms of Inflammation, Injury, and Repair in Lung and Airways Diseases.

Led by Benjamin Singer, MD, Alexander Misharin, MD, PhD, and Stephanie Eisenbarth, MD, PhD, the Neu-Lung Consortium brings together investigators from Northwestern University and Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago, National Jewish Health and the University of Colorado Children’s Hospital in Denver, and the University of Calgary in Canada.

Together the Neu-Lung Investigators seek to identify mechanisms that determine how lung neutrophils drive tissue injury, inflammation, and repair in patients with severe pneumonia, lung transplant, and asthma. They will leverage existing research infrastructures in pneumonia (the Successful Clinical Response in Pneumonia Therapy [SCRIPT] U19 Systems Biology Center led by Richard Wunderink, MD at Northwestern), lung transplantation (led by Ankit Bharat, MBBS at Northwestern), and asthma (led by Max Seibold, PhD at National Jewish) to obtain respiratory samples from well-phenotyped patients with lung disease from which neutrophils can be isolated and analyzed.

Neu-Lung’s research projects focused on alveolar and airways diseases will be supported by an Administrative core (co-led by Stephanie Eisenbarth, MD, PhD, Director of the Center for Human Immunobiology and Chief of Allergy and Immunology in the Department of Medicine at Northwestern, and Scott Budinger, MD, Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care in the Department of Medicine at Northwestern) and Scientific cores with expertise in informatics and machine learning (led by Theresa Walunas, PhD and Slim Fourati, PhD at Northwestern and Vamsi Guntur, MD, MSc at National Jewish), neutrophil physiology (led William A. Muller, MD, PhD at Northwestern), and advanced single-cell and spatial technologies (led by Parambir Dulai, MD at Northwestern and William Janssen, MD at National Jewish).

Paul Kubes, PhD (University of Calgary), a world expert in neutrophil biology, joins the Neu-Lung Investigators to support their mechanistic work linking features of the alveolar and airway microenvironment to neutrophil function. Other key personnel include Bria Coates, MD, Yuan Luo, PhD, Luisa Morales-Nebreda, MD, Ronen Sumagin, PhD, Sergejs Berdnikovs, PhD, and Hiam Abdala-Valencia, PhD at Northwestern, and Pamela L. Zeitlin, MD, MPhil, PhD at National Jewish.

Ultimately, the Neu-Lung Consortium will further the mission of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care and SQLIFTS by establishing novel mechanisms that link lung neutrophil function to human health and disease.