Stephen Schworer, MD, PhD

More than 25 million Americans have asthma, including 5.5 million children. Treating asthma helps to improve breathing and prevent harmful exacerbations. We will study two parts of asthma that could be targets for future treatments: 1) blockages in the airway caused by mucus and; 2) changes in the lungs’ small airways. We use lungs from people who have died from asthma and people with severe asthma to study these two features. We will show to what extent mucus blocks the small airways in asthma. Then, we will investigate how the epithelial cells in the airways blocked by mucus are different from those without mucus. Finally, we will determine how the epithelial cells from small airways control how they make mucus by measuring their RNA and how genes are turned on and off.

Co-Funded American Lung Association & Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology

Update:

Small airway dysfunction is linked to asthma flare-ups and poor symptom control, but we don't fully understand its molecular causes. Our research found mucus blockages in small airways of fatal asthma cases and severe asthmatics who don't respond to steroids. We discovered that a protein called MUC5AC, a key component of these mucus blockages, is highly present in small airways of asthma patients, and its expression varies widely. We mapped out the gene activity linked to areas where MUC5AC is expressed. Next, we will aim to gain a deeper understanding of mucus blockages in asthma's small airways.