Assem Ziady

Assistant Professor

Ph.D. Physiology and Biophysics,1999
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RESEARCH DESCRIPTION

Inflammation in cystic fibrosis is excessive, and typically leads to lung damage and eventual lung failure. A number of studies have found that CF cells, especially airway epithelia produce elevated levels of proteins such as cytokines, transcription factors, kinases, and phosphatases implicated in their exaggerated response to inflammatory stimulus. Anti-inflammatory therapy with agents such as ibuprofen has been shown to be beneficial, slowing lung deterioration in patients. However, the origin of drug mechanisms involved in limiting this inflammatory response as well as the interplay between defects in cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator (CFTR) and the inflammatory cascades are not well understood.

Our studies make use of mass spectrometry to analyze changes in protein expression levels and post-translational modifications in CF cells in response to inflammatory stimulus. We examine these changes in cultured cells designed to exhibit the CF phenotype that are well matched to non CF controls of identical cell-lineage origin. Our aim is to identify proteins that become altered in the CF state and examine whether these play a role in inflammatory response mechanisms. Furthermore, we test whether post-translational modifications that alter protein function, such as oxidation, occur differently in CF than non-CF cells in response to inflammation, and identify them. These studies have the prospect of elucidating cell-wide mechanisms involved in the CF inflammatory response on the protein level, and identifying specific therapeutic targets that play central roles in evoking these responses.

A second focus in the lab is the use of non-viral gene transfer to correct recessive disorders such as cystic fibrosis and hemophilia B at the genetic level with gene therapy. Our main goal is to use stabilized self assembling DNA nanoparticles to target airway epithelia and hepatocytes and deliver genes that will reverse the protein expression and modification differences that we observe in out proteomic studies.

RELATED RESEARCH AREAS

View Assem Ziady's Publications on PubMed