Februaary 2024

PULMONARY

PULMONOLOGISTS INDUCTED INTO AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR CLINICAL INVESTIGATION

Featuring: Benjamin Singer, ’07 MD, ’10 GME, SeungHye Han, MD, MPH
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Four Feinberg faculty members have been inducted into the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), one of the nation’s oldest medical honor societies composed of more than 3,000 physician-scientists, and three additional Feinberg faculty members have also been honored with the ASCI Young Physician-Scientist Award, which recognizes physician-scientists who are early in their first faculty appointment and have made notable achievements in their research.

This year’s ASCI inductees include Amani Fawzi, MD, the Cyrus Tang and Lee Jampol Professor of Ophthalmology; Craig Horbinski, MD, PhD, director of Neuropathology in the Department of Pathology; Sanjiv Shah, ’00 MD, the Neil J. Stone, MD, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology; and Benjamin Singer, ’07 MD, ’10 GME, the Lawrence Hicks Professor of Pulmonary Medicine.

The Feinberg faculty members who were honored with the ASCI Young Physician-Scientist Award are: SeungHye Han, MD, MPH, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care; Fei Li Kuang, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Allergy and Immunology; and Whitney Stevens, MD, PhD, ‘13, ‘14 GME, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Allergy and Immunology and of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery.

Advancing Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine

​“Election to the ASCI is a humbling honor. I am grateful to those who supported my nomination for ASCI election as well as my growth as a physician-scientist,” said Singer, who is also an associate professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics.

Singer’s clinical care and research laboratory seeks to better understand DNA methylation and gene expression in T-cells as features that may help treat acute lung inflammation and repair lung damage.

In 2021, Singer, along with a team of Feinberg faculty members, were awarded a $14 million grant from the National Institute of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to study the mechanisms that promote lung tissue repair in patients with severe viral pneumonia. The project is also being supported by resources available through Northwestern’s Successful Clinical Response In Pneumonia Therapy (SCRIPT) Systems Biology Center.

​Singer was a co-lead author of a first-of-its-kind study, where scientists analyzed immune cells from the lungs of patients with pneumonia due to COVID-19 and demonstrated how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, behaves differently than other bacteria and viruses such as influenza. In the study published in Nature, Singer and colleagues found that SARS-CoV-2 hijacks the lungs’ immune cells to spread infection across the lung, damaging multiple organs within its path.

“Already, scientists at Northwestern and elsewhere are anticipating mechanisms by which this RNA virus, which mutates quickly, will evade current vaccines,” Singer said. “This study will help us develop treatments to reduce the severity of COVID-19 in those who develop it.”

In another recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation also co-led by Singer, investigators found that by applying machine learning to medical record data that secondary bacterial pneumonia that does not resolve was a key driver of death in patients with COVID-19.

“Our study highlights the importance of preventing, looking for and aggressively treating secondary bacterial pneumonia in critically ill patients with severe pneumonia, including those with COVID-19,” Singer said.

Uncovering the Cellular Mechanisms of Lung Development
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​​“It is an honor to be recognized by ASCI,” Han said.

Han’s research aims to characterize the cellular mechanisms underlying proper lung development and how these mechanisms may be altered in the context of infection and disease.

In collaboration with Navdeep Chandel, PhD, the David W. Cugell, MD, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care and of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Han discovered that mitochondria regulate essential cellular signaling for the development of epithelial cells in the lungs, cells which are crucial for the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide to avoid respiratory failure.

The findings, published in Nature, show that mitochondria have functions beyond energy production in the cell and may be a potential target for future therapeutic interventions for lung damage.

​“We’re now examining the possibility that mitochondrial integrated stress response (ISR) signaling could be disrupted during lung repair after injury resulting in lung diseases like pulmonary fibrosis or prolonged viral pneumonia. If this is true, it could open new avenues for treatments that target mitochondria-dependent ISR signaling in diseases involving lung damage and repair,” Han said.

​This article was originally published in the Feinberg School of Medicine News Center on February 9, 2024. 
Benjamin Singer, ’07 MD, ’10 GME, the Lawrence Hicks Professor of Pulmonary Medicine and is also an associate professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, was elected to ASCI.
​SeungHye Han, MD, MPH, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, was honored with the ASCI Young Physician-Scientist Award.

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