Weill Cornell Medicine
Genetic Medicine
Weill Cornell Medicine

Human Airway Epithelial Biology

Urine Continine Levels Over 1 Year
Image: Analysis of the transcriptome of epithelial cells taken from active smokers, non-smokers, and smoking quitters shows that expression patterns of many genes, but not all genes, normalizes within 12 months (Strulovici-Barel et al., 2023)
Human Airway Epithelial Biology
Image: A fully differentiated airway epithelium can be grown in the lab starting with airway basal cells. The differentiated epithelia maintain some of the characteristics of disease or condition experienced by the basal cell donor.
Human airway epithelial tissue co-stained for 3 markers of airway club cells
Image: Human airway epithelial tissue co-stained for 3 markers of airway club cells that are specialized to defend the airway against dangerous biologic and chemical agents (Rostami et al., 2023)

Areas of Investigation

  • Effect of cigarette, e-cigarette, and waterpipe (hookah) smoking on small airway epithelial gene expression 
  • Changes in small airway epithelial gene expression and bronchoalveolar cell gene expression during chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or interstitial lung disease, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP), systemic scleroderma, or chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis (CHP) 
  • Effect of viral infection on the airway epithelium 

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DGM awarded NIH R01 grant to study differentiation of basal cells isolated from patients with COPD  

2024

Nakamura K, Henry T, Traverse J, Latter D, Mokadam N, Answini G, Williams A, Sun B, Burke C, Bakaeen F, DiCarli M, Chaitman B, Peterson M, Byrnes D, Ohman E, Pepine C, Crystal R, Rosengart T, Kowalewski E, Koch G, Dittrich H, Povsic T . 2024. Angiogenic Gene Therapy for Refractory Angina: Results of the EXACT Phase 2 Trial. Circ Cardiovasc Interv
Rojsajjakul T, Selvan N, De B, Rosenberg J, Kaminsky S, Sondhi D, Janki P, Crystal R, Mesaros C, Khanna R, Blair I . 2024. Expression and processing of mature human frataxin after gene therapy in mice. Sci Rep
Crystal R . 2024. Are Airway Epithelial p73 Levels a Therapeutic Target to Treat Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease? Am J Respir Crit Care Med

2023

Zaidman C, Goedeker N, Aqul A, Butterfield R, Connolly A, Crystal R, Godwin K, Hor K, Mathews K, Proud C, Kula Smyth E, Veerapandiyan A, Watkins P, Mendell J . 2024. Management of Select Adverse Events Following Delandistrogene Moxeparvovec Gene Therapy for Patients With Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. J Neuromuscul Dis
Rojsajjakul T, Selvan N, De B, Rosenberg J, Kaminsky S, Sondhi D, Janki P, Crystal R, Mesaros C, Khanna R, Blair I . 2023. Expression and processing of mature human frataxin after gene therapy in mice. Res Sq
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