Work Summary
The primary focus of Dr. Kalin laboratory is to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms of lung injury, repair, pulmonary fibrosis, and carcinogenesis. Using the novel nanoparticle delivery systems and the cell progenitor therapies, her laboratory is developing the new clinical approaches to improve the treatment outcomes for the patients with chronic lung diseases.
Research Interest
Dr. Kalin’s main interest is to uncover the critical regulatory interactions between different cell types in the lung. Her laboratory is using clinical tissue samples, human ex vivo models and animal models to understand the complex signaling networks that drive the disease progression with the goal to develop novel therapies to improve patients’ survival and quality of life. The lab has generated multiple transgenic and knockout mouse models of lung diseases to study the role of different cell populations, including lung epithelial cells, macrophages, fibroblasts, pericytes, and endothelial cells. They identified multiple signaling pathways involved in these cellular interactions and several transcription factors regulating disease progression. Dr. Kalin is also developing the new therapeutic approaches to target different cell types in the lung interstitial microenvironment using nanoparticle delivery systems as well as cell therapies. Finally, Dr. Kalin is actively involved in drug development by screening for the new therapeutic compounds to inhibit pathogenesis of lung diseases and to alleviate the long-term complication after non-resolved lung injury caused by radiation treatment, chemotherapy, or viral infections. Her long-term goal is to develop the new therapies to treat chronic fibrosing lung diseases and metastatic lung cancers.
