Britt Lab
Inflammation plays an integral role in chronic airway diseases that adversely affects children. The Britt Lab studies how inflammation affects airway structure and function in asthma, cystic fibrosis, and bronchopulmonary dysplasia. We use human primary cells, most notably airway smooth muscle, and mouse models of severe allergic airway inflammation to study mechanisms that contribute to impaired corticosteroid sensitivity. We are also interested in how hyperoxia-induced senescence promotes neonatal recurrent wheeze and asthma. Using these models, we investigate how airway inflammation mediates airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) and remodeling.
Additional projects are aimed to better define immune responses in patients with acute asthma exacerbation and cystic fibrosis. We use a variety of techniques to assess airway inflammation, AHR, remodeling using multi-omic approaches (RNA-, ATAC-, ChIP-seq), flow cytometry, molecular and cellular biology, and histology. Collectively, our goal is to define physiological and immunological mechanisms that drive chronic airway disease, while also developing novel strategies that can alleviate disease and improve airway function.
