About Us:

Specific Aims of the Program

Lung disease is the third most frequent cause of death in this country, claiming close to 361,000 Americans annually. Tragically, an additional 25 million live with chronic lung diseases including asthma, emphysema, cancer and cystic fibrosis. Our proposal, entitled “Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Lung Disease” will study the molecular and cellular mechanisms, which underlie the initiation, pathogenesis, progression, and treatment of lung disease. This new Center of Biomedical Research Excellence will provide the infrastructure needed to establish a highly interactive and outstanding cadre of junior and senior researchers studying lung biology and disease at Dartmouth, Keene State College, and the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.

To accomplish this goal, we have assembled an outstanding, multidisciplinary research team from several complementary disciplines. The proposed director is Bruce A. Stanton, Ph.D., Professor of Physiology and Director, Cystic Fibrosis Research Development Program and Director, Epithelial Biology Training Program at Dartmouth. The senior leadership is composed of scientists representing nine different departments at Dartmouth, including Dr. James C. Leiter, Co-Director of the COBRE, and the former chief of the Pulmonary Section at DHMC and Dr. Joshua Hamilton, Co-Director, and Director of the Center for Environmental Health Sciences and Molecular Biology and Proteomics Core at Dartmouth. This group has a strong publication record of productive collaboration and interaction. By working together our goal is to develop a critical mass of investigators in lung biology that will enhance our competitiveness and accelerate the rate at which our junior investigators compete for NIH grant support. In addition, our focus is to translate new scientific insights regarding the biology and molecular mechanisms of lung disease into novel diagnostic and therapeutic tools and their application to public health in the state and region.

Within this framework of an existing strong core of established, NIH-funded faculty and strong institutional commitments, we propose to use COBRE support to achieve the following overall goals:

1. To establish a Lung Biology Center focused on lung injury, cancer, and cystic fibrosis that will become nationally/internationally recognized, free standing, and will consist of an expanded cadre of investigators able to more effectively compete for NIH funding and enhance the NIH grant portfolio in the State of New Hampshire.

2. To expand and develop lung biology research by:

a. Close mentoring and maturation of the four promising junior faculty already at Dartmouth who will serve as the project leaders on four proposed research projects (Drs. O’Toole, Swiatecka-Urban, Madden, and Duell (Shi, Co-PI).

b. Similar mentoring of Dr. Melinda Treadwell at Keene State College, a junior investigator and project leader.

c. Recruiting two new tenure-track faculty with primary appointments at Dartmouth. All new faculty will be funded with COBRE support.

d. Recruitment of one new tenure-track faulty at Keene State College.

e. Encouraging additional recruitments in basic science and clinical departments for tenure-track research positions for which the searches will be designated or re-prioritized to focus on investigators whose research interests will complement the COBRE theme of lung biology. We are confident that COBRE funding will provide the impetus for additional targeting of faculty searches to the growing area of research strength in lung biology.

f. Establishing both an Administrative and Proteomics Core to promote the goals mentioned above.