2020

Dr. Joseph E. Druso is a Postdoctoral Associate at The University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine, where he studies the contributions of altered redox biology in pulmonary fibrosis under the mentorship of Dr. Yvonne Janssen-Heininger. Joe received his PhD from Cornell University in the laboratory of Dr. Richard Cerione studying the roles of the small GTPase Cdc42 in normal development and breast cancer.  Following graduate school, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Claudia Fischbach in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Cornell University, where he studied the design and use of novel engineered cell culture systems to model human disease.  Joe is now applying his background in molecular medicine and biomedical engineering to investigate how altered redox states, specifically those determined by protein S-glutathionylation, affect lung cell differentiation and fibrotic tissue remodeling in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

I am a new Research Instructor in Allergy, Pulmonary, and Critical Care Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center under the mentorship of Dr. Timothy Blackwell and Dr. Jon Kropski. My research is focusing on the abnormal epithelial cell signaling associated with the progression of interstitial lung diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

I obtained by PhD training at the State university of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse NY, where I studied asymmetric patterning of the body axis using the zebrafish model system. Under the mentorship of Dr. Jeffrey Amack, I gained a foundation in understanding developmental signaling networks and how they interact. I then transitioned to my post-doctoral training under the guidance of Dr. Jeffrey Whitsett at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center where I studied pulmonary biology and utilized mouse models of lung development and injury.

Dr. Gillian Goobie completed her MD and Internal Medicine residency at the University of Calgary prior to entering into her Respiratory Medicine fellowship at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Dr. Goobie’s research during medical residency and fellowship focused on understanding the pathophysiology of autoimmune and interstitial lung diseases. During her clinical training, she was mentored by Dr. Kerri Johannson, Dr. Charlene Fell, and Dr. Chris Ryerson. Her early research experiences drove Dr. Goobie to pursue a PhD in Human Genetics in the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh, supervised by Dr. Daniel Kass, Dr. Yingze Zhang, and Dr. S. Mehdi Nouraie. Her PhD research is focused on elucidating the role that air pollution plays in the development and progression of interstitial lung diseases. She is specifically interested in how air pollution modifies the epigenome of these patients, leading to downstream gene expression alterations and disease development. When she is not in the hospital or working on her research, Gillian enjoys traveling and exploring the outdoors either by foot, bike, or skis.

Dr. Bridget Graney is an Instructor in the Division of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Colorado. She earned her medical degree at the University of Nebraska followed by residency training and chief resident year in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Indiana University. She subsequently completed fellowship training at the University of Colorado where she has stayed on as faculty following the completion of an additional year of research training. During her fellowship and research training, Dr. Graney has worked under the mentorship of Drs. Jeffrey J. Swigris, David Bekelman and Joyce S. Lee.  Her current research focuses on the dynamic interrelationship between patients with interstitial lung disease and their caregivers. Recognizing that none of us exist in isolation, Dr. Graney seeks to understand the impact of disease on caregivers of patients with ILD, specifically the degree of caregiver burden experienced that is frequently unrecognized but has negative health consequences for caregivers. Her long term goal is to improve outcomes, specifically quality of life, for both patients and caregivers by focusing on interventions for patient-caregiver dyads (pairs).

Dr. Unterman is a physician-scientist focusing his career on research and clinical practice in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and other interstitial lung diseases. After completing his pulmonary fellowship at the Rabin Medical Center in Israel, he joined Dr. Naftali Kaminski’s laboratory as an Instructor at Yale School of Medicine, where he studied the immune system in IPF using the powerful technology of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq). During the COVID-19 pandemic he led a large collaborative scRNA-seq study at Yale, uncovering the dyssynchrony of the innate and adaptive immune system in progressive COVID-19.  

Dr. Unterman attended medical school at the Technion- Israel Institute of Technology, and completed residency training in internal medicine at the Sheba Medical Center in Israel. He holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the Technion and has published over 20 research articles and book chapters. Starting from December 2020, he will be joining the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center in Israel, where he will head the Interstitial Lung Disease Service as well as a research laboratory. His current research focuses on single-cell immune profiling of the peripheral blood to identify the immunological mechanisms that distinguish immune-driven forms of pulmonary fibrosis from IPF, and facilitate the development of precision medicine approaches for diagnosis and treatment.

Dr. Valenzi is a Research Instructor and Clinical Instructor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.  She completed her undergraduate education at the University of Pennsylvania, followed by medical school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, and internal medicine training at the University of Chicago. During fellowship, she joined the lab of Dr. Robert Lafyatis to investigate the regulation of fibroblast transformation in systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease.  Her current research utilizes novel single-cell sequencing technologies to understand fibroblast gene regulatory networks in healthy and fibrotic human lungs. Clinically, Dr. Valenzi specializes in the management of interstitial lung disease and is an attending physician in the Dorothy P. and Richard P. Simmons Center for Interstitial Lung Disease at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.