About Our Lab
The Budinger laboratory is interested in understanding how aging biology intersects with the age-related risk of acute and chronic lung disease. They have focused on the proteostasis network, a system of proteins that is responsible for maintaining all of the proteins in the cell in their native functional state. In model organisms, there is a programmed signal that induces a progressive decline in function of the proteostasis network, and interruption of this pathway extends lifespan and improves resilience in the face of environmental stress.
The Budinger lab is testing whether a similar decline in the function of the proteostasis network happens in the lung, and whether this loss of “proteostasis reserve” underlies the increased susceptibility to pneumonia, and the increased risk of lung fibrosis and emphysema observed in older individuals. The long-term goal of this work is to develop treatments that can reduce these age-related risks and preserve lung health over the lifespan.
Collaborators
- Luis AN Amaral, PhD
Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering - Ankit Bharat, MBBS
Assistant Professor in Surgery-Thoracic Surgery - Navdeep S. Chandel, PhD
David W. Cugell, M.D. Professor in Medicine-Pulmonary and Cell and Molecular Biology - Cara Gottardi, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine - Pulmonary and Critical Care - Monique Hinchcliff, MD
Associate Professor in Medicine-Rheumatology - Manu Jain, MD
Professor of Medicine (Pulmonary and Critical Care) and Pediatrics - Ravi Kalhan, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine (Pulmonary and Critical Care) and Preventive Medicine - David Kamp, MD
Professor in Medicine-Pulmonary and Cell and Molecular Biology - Jing Liu, PhD
Associate Professor in Medicine-Pulmonary - Alexander Misharin, MD, PhD
Research Assistant Professor in Medicine-Pulmonary - Richard Morimoto, PhD
Professor in Molecular Biosciences - Harris Perlman, PhD
Professor in Medicine-Rheumatology - Karen M. Ridge, PhD
Associate Professor in Medicine-Pulmonaryand Cell and Molecular Biology - Benjamin Singer, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine-Pulmonary - Peter Sporn, MD
Professor of Medicine (Pulmonary and Critical Care), Cell and Molecular Biology and Medical Education - Jacob I. Sznajder, MD
Professor in Medicine-Pulmonary and Cell and Molecular Biology - Richard Wunderink, MD
Professor in Medicine-Pulmonary
External Collaborators
- William E. Balch, PhD
Scripps Research Institute - Andrew Ghio, MD
United States Environmental Protection Agency - Susanne Herold, MD, PhD
Universities Giessen & Marburg Lung Center - Gokhan M. Mutlu, MD
University of Chicago Medicine