March 2026

PULMONARY

LUISA MORALES-NEBREDA, MD, RECEIVES 2026 YOUNG PHYSICIAN-SCIENTIST AWARD FROM ASCI

Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute is proud to announce that Luisa Morales-Nebreda, MD, has been selected as a 2026 Young Physician-Scientist Awardee by the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI). This prestigious national honor recognizes early career physician-scientists for their outstanding research achievements and commitment to advancing biomedical science.

Dr. Morales-Nebreda’s research focuses on determinants of recovery from pneumonia. In the context of viral-induced lung injury, her lab aims to identify novel intercellular signaling pathways between resident immune cell subsets and the injured alveolar epithelial-endothelial barrier that promote tissue repair. As part of this, Dr. Morales-Nebreda’s lab works to unravel the complex molecular circuits governing the spatiotemporal phenotype and function of cells during the development of and recovery from acute lung injury.

The lab uses multi-parameter flow cytometry, cell sorting, advanced microscopy and multimodal next-gen sequencing technologies — including bulk and single-cell RNA and TCR sequencing — as well as image-based spatially resolved transcriptomics. The Morales-Nebreda Lab applies these advanced techniques to murine models of lung injury and human samples to causally link how perturbation-based, molecular-level information impacts high-order disease phenotypes in lung inflammatory processes.

In a recent analysis, the Morales-Nebreda Lab used computational models and a systems biology approach to learn how pathogen-specific T-cell responses are linked with clinical outcomes during severe pneumonia. They found that enrichment of lung T-cell subsets exhibiting an interferon-stimulated profile and T-cell response specificity for SARS-CoV-2 structural proteins correlated with favorable outcomes.

Looking ahead, the Morales-Nebreda Lab seeks to better understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms that dictate the key correlates of pathogen-specific protective and pathological immunity.
Luisa Morales-Nebreda, MD, Assistant Professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care

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