Achievement

IGERT Trainees Josh Campbell and Julie Zeskind in Campbell, J., Zeskind, J., McDonough, J., Sanchez, P., Cooper, J., Lui, G., Horng, D., Wright, A., Hayashi, S., Hogg, J., Lenburg, M.E., Spira, A. (2010, May) Changes in gene expression with progression of emphysematous destruction in COPD. Poster, Am. Thoracic Society, New Orleans. To gain insight into chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) pathogenesis, we profiled gene expression in regions with differing emphysema severity from 6 lungs with COPD and 2 donor lungs. 127 genes had expression profiles significantly correlated with degree of emphysema. The Context Likelihood of Related algorithm was used to infer a gene co-expression network. The Ingenuity Pathway Analysis tool showed that genes connected to EPAS1 in the CLR network, including KDR and TEK had supporting experimental evidence for transcriptional regulation. EPAS1 is a hypoxia inducible transcription factor that is downregulated in regions of severe emphysema.