PFF announces $400,000 grant for pulmonary fibrosis research

The Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation today announced that, in partnership with the American Thoracic Society (ATS) and Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis (CPF), $400,000 in new pulmonary fibrosis research grants as part of the 2010 ATS Partner Award Program for Pulmonary Fibrosis Research.

The ATS/PFF/CPF Partner Awards for Pulmonary Fibrosis are jointly funded by the PFF and CPF, and awards are made through a rigorous peer review application process administered by ATS. Each award is for $50,000 over two years, beginning in January, 2011.

The PFF is proud to recognize the following recipients:

• Erica Herzog, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Pulmonary and Critical Care Division at Yale University (New Haven, CT), was awarded a Partner Grant to investigate emaphorin 7a and alternative macrophage activation in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis"
• Steven Huang, MD, Lecturer in the Department of Medicine at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI), was awarded a Partner Grant to investigate the regulation and pattern of the DNA methylome in pulmonary fibrosis
• Philip Simonian, MD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Colorado Denver, was awarded a Partner Grant to investigate whether IL-22 offers protection from inflammation-induced pulmonary fibrosis
• Beiyun Zhou, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Pulmonary and Critical Care Division at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA), was awarded a Partner Grant to investigate whether endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress induces epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in alveolar epithelial cells (AEC), and their role in pulmonary fibrosis

"It is important to have these partnerships to increase the research funding available to investigators for this very difficult and deadly disease," said Daniel M. Rose, MD, President of the PFF." We are pleased that the peer review committee at ATS was able to select such high quality research to fund."

Jesse Roman, Chair ATS Scientific Review Committee and Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Louisville, noted that: "Pulmonary fibrosis affects hundreds of thousands of Americans and many more worldwide. We need to continue to support research in this field until safe and effective treatments become available. Partnerships with the PPF and other organizations are crucial to sustain this effort and represent a wonderful example of how physicians, scientists, patients, advocacy groups, and the community in general can come together to tackle important medical problems."

The PFF's partnership with the CPF and ATS is part of the Foundation's longstanding commitment to drive new funding into pulmonary fibrosis research. To date, the PFF has directly funded, or has commitments to fund, more than $3 million to basic research programs in the United States with hopes of finding new treatments or a cure. To learn more about the PFF and its work, please visit www.pulmonaryfibrosis.org or call 888-733-6741.