Kunal Patel, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Division of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, has been granted a K01 Research Scientist Development Award from the National Institutes of Health for his project titled, "The Post-Lung Transplant Impact of Alveolar Macrophage Senescence in Aged Donor Lungs."
The purpose of the K01 award program is to provide support and protected time for an intensive, supervised career development experience in the biomedical, behavioral, or clinical sciences leading to research independence.
Dr. Patel's project will determine the role of senescent alveolar macrophages in allograft failure and the poor outcomes associated with aged donor lungs, which will provide the field with clinically relevant, therapeutic targets to increase the utility and viability of aged donor lungs for lung transplant.