Critical Care and Perioperative Medicine Division Research
During the last decade, members of the Critical Care Division have developed highly successful programs which in collaboration with faculty members from other departments and university centers, pursues basic, translational and clinical research projects related to contribution of pathogens and reactive species to lung epithelial injury, basic mechanisms by which nitric decreases injury to the systemic circulation following ischemia-reperfusion, nitric oxide control of smooth muscle tone, and novel drug strategies for promoting tissue protection during metabolic "stress" (e.g., ischemic episodes, acute inflammatory responses).
Several faculty members of the Critical Care Division contribute to the research and teaching missions of the Center of Free Radical in Biology and Medicine, established by Dr. Bruce A. Freeman, acknowledged as a one of the world's strongest centers focusing on the roles of reactive inflammatory mediators (free radicals, oxidants) in surgical, critical care, immunological, cell signaling and environmental problems.
Active Research Protocols
Lung Injury Research (Sadis Matalon, Ph.D.)
Current research efforts in Dr. Matalon's laboratory focus on understanding the mechanisms by which viruses and reactive oxygen nitrogen species damage the activity of lung ion channels and in developing countermeasures to lung injury caused by chlorine inhalation. Recent findings include: (1) the elucidation of the mechanisms by which Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia among infants under 1 year of age and a common cause of pneumonia among the elderly and immunocompromised patients, damages the lungs;(2) the demonstration of the dual role of nitric oxide in modulating sodium and chloride transport across the respiratory and alveolar epithelial and (3) the development of novel therapeutic regimes aimed to decrease lung injury following exposure to chlorine gas.