COPD is a progressive lung disorder affecting more than 10 million Americans and millions more worldwide, where it is currently the third-leading cause of death.
Long-term exposure to lung irritants, with cigarette smoking as the dominant environmental risk factor, predisposes to COPD, but the response to irritants is highly variable. COPD is also a heterogeneous syndrome that includes destruction of the lung parenchyma (emphysema) and/or damage to small airways.
Channing Division of Network Medicine (CDNM) investigators have built a comprehensive research strategy to:
We apply a multidisciplinary approach to understand COPD etiology, heterogeneity, and pathobiology to improve diagnosis and prognosis, and to develop therapeutics for treatment.
Early research at Channing demonstrated the negative effects of secondhand tobacco smoke on lung growth and development, and subsequently showed that COPD aggregates in families, supporting the concept that genetic determinants influence COPD susceptibility.
Our research group has led many of the GWAS analyses of COPD and COPD-related phenotypes, and we are leading whole genome sequencing analysis of more than 12,000 subjects.
Genetics is a crucial aspect of our research, including:
CDNM scientists model molecular interactions using complex network approaches, for example:
Study populations developed by CDNM investigators include:
The Channing Division of Network Medicine leads collaborations with groups such as the American Thoracic Society, International COPD Genetics Consortium, NHLBI Trans-Omics in Precision Medicine (TOPMed), and others that allow us to access an extensive repertoire of multi-omics data.