About
Instructor
Department of Medicine
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Project title: Cellular senescence as a driver of progenitor cell dysfunction in progressive pulmonary fibrosis
Mentors:
Barry R. Stripp, PhD – Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Multidisciplinary Expertise:
Lung Biology, Lung Fibrosis, Acute and chronic lung injury repair, Bioinformatics on omics data.
Project Description:
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is an age related progressive interstitial lung disease with a median diagnosis at 66 years old and estimated survival of 2–4 years. Accelerated aging mechanisms including Cellular senescence, are believed to contribute to epithelial progenitor cell dysfunction and progressive tissue remodeling in IPF. However, there has been no systematic analysis of cellular senescence programs that are activated in distinct lung cell types and contribute to tissue remodeling. The goals of current project are to gain fundamental insights into cellular senescent signatures of different lung cell types in human patient samples and mouse models, to understand mechanisms by which epithelial senescence leads to initiation and progression of lung fibrosis and further develop targeting strategy to prevent or reverse disease progression.