Learn more about research in the Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine.
| Faculty Member | Research Interests |
|---|---|
| Elaine Chen, MD | Dr. Chen’s research interests lie mostly at the intersections of her specialties, which are Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Palliative Medicine. Specifically, her research is focused palliative and end-of-life care in the ICU, and specifically compassionate extubation and palliative ventilator withdrawal, as well as advance care planning and code status documentation. She also has projects related to palliative care in cystic fibrosis and medical education in the intersection of palliative care and critical care. |
| Jared Greenberg, MD | Dr. Greenberg's research focuses on 1) Novel ways to communicate with and support families of critically ill patients; 2) shared decision making in the ICU, and 3) long-term outcomes for patients and families after critical illness. |
| Dan Predescu, MD | In addition to collaborating with Dr. Sanda Predescu and Dr. Mokhlesi, Dr. Dan Predescu uses the Cav2 null mice, a well-known murine model of pulmonary fibrosis, to study how the fibrotic traits of this murine model respond to yearlong treatment with pirfenidone and nintedanib. Epithelial, endothelial and fibroblasts cell populations isolated from the murine lungs with and without treatment are used to investigate the still not fully understood cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in the anti-fibrotic action of these two drugs. |
| Sanda Predescu, PhD | Dr. Predescu, in collaboration with Dr. Mokhlesi, is interested in the effects of hypoxia (intermittent, sustained and overlap hypoxia), hypercapnia and obesity on pulmonary vascular disease, specifically in pulmonary arterial hypertension. Their studies are exploring the downstream effects of sleep-disordered breathing (i.e., obstructive sleep apnea and obesity hypoventilation syndrome) in-vitro on human pulmonary artery endothelial cells and in vivo in a murine model of pulmonary arterial hypertension. The overarching goal of the laboratory is to understand the potential mechanisms underlying how obesity, hypoxia and hypercapnia can lead to or exacerbate pulmonary vascular disease and to identify potential novel treatment strategies. Additionally, the laboratory is interested in understanding the mechanism behind the well-defined sexual dimorphism seen in pulmonary arterial hypertension. Lastly, the research group is studying the therapeutic effects of microparticles isolated from the blood of ARDS patients and parent mesenchymal stem cells on the injured pulmonary vessels. The objective is to develop a novel and clinically safe therapeutic approach for ARDS treatment, a desirable alternative to stem cell therapy. |
| Babak Mokhlesi, MD, MSc | Dr. Mokhlesi is an international authority in the field of sleep-disordered breathing and hypoventilation syndromes. His research interests include clinical studies exploring the cardiometabolic impact of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and obesity hypoventilation syndrome (OHS). To better elucidate how OSA and OHS may be a risk factor in other comorbidities, he is developed a translational research program (i.e., cell cultures using human pulmonary artery endothelial cells and murine models) with Dr. Sanda Predescu exploring the role of intermittent and sustained hypoxemia, hypercapnia, and obesity in pulmonary hypertension. |
| Edward Pickering, MD | Dr. Pickering’s research interests include diagnosis and staging of thoracic malignancies, with a focus on evaluation of new technologies and comparative clinical trials. He is also interested in tumor immunology and techniques to optimize tissue acquisition for next generation sequencing in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. |
| Juan Rojas, MD | Dr. JC Rojas is the Director of Clinical Informatics and Data Science at Rush University. He is interested in using cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to improve patient safety and reduce diagnostic errors, such as using natural language processing (a type of AI) to identify hospitalized patients at risk of substance misuse, allowing providers to quickly connect them with the appropriate treatment teams. He is also a founding member of the Common Longitudinal ICU data Format (CLIF) Consortium (https://clif-consortium.github.io/website/), a collaborative effort aimed at advancing the field of ICU data science. Another key focus of his research is promoting health equity and ensuring that AI is developed and used responsibly in healthcare. |
| James Katsis, MD | Dr. Katsis’s research focuses on pragmatic clinical trials to determine ideal approaches in the diagnosis and staging of thoracic malignancies, such as best biopsy techniques to ensure adequate tissue for molecular testing for patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Through these studies the interventional pulmonary program hopes to optimize and standardize safe and accurate diagnostic techniques. |