PLAY VIDEO
I want to donate
Rewards
Acknowledgement at our web and social media.
The previous + Visit to our laboratory.
The previous + Acknowledgement in scientific publications or conferences.
Respiratory diseases are the leading cause of death and disability in the world. To investigate them, save lives.
What is our goal? Respiratory diseases affect hundred million people being the leading cause of death and disability in the world. Each year, 4 million people die prematurely from chronic respiratory disease and yet, health outcomes for lung disease have not improved in the last years to the same extent as cardiovascular disease and cancer. Most of lung diseases do not have a cure and treatment guidelines aim to alleviate symptoms, to improve life quality and to reduce risk of death. An important problem is that these diseases are diagnosed late, when the disease is already established, decreasing the chances to cure them. Thus, the development of new methods to early detect the disease as well as looking for efficient treatments is critical. Research in respiratory diseases is the hope for today and the promise for tomorrow. Research helps to the prevention, detection and treatment. Understanding the mechanisms of injury involved in the development of the disease will allow us to generate novel therapeutic strategies to revert or limit the pathological process. Moreover, studying the mechanisms of regeneration in the lung, will allow us to promote tissue repair integrating strategies to block disease progression together with therapies to recover functional tissue. In our laboratory we study lung inflammation, fibrosis and regeneration to understand how the lung gets damaged and to identify therapies to inhibit the progression of the disease. In addition, we study the behavior of lung stem and progenitor cell populations that are in charge of the regeneration of damaged tissue to develop strategies promoting lung repair. Our major goal consists therefore in identifying cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in the development of respiratory diseases, specifically asthma, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pulmonary hypertension and COVID-19, to find efficient therapies. In particular, based on our preliminary results, we propose: To do that, we use different in vivo injury models to recapitulate the pathological processes of the specific disease and in vitro models using human cells isolated from lung biopsies by flow cytometry, as well as lung explants (Precision Cut Lung Slices) to test potential therapies for specific pathologies. Using the last available technologies of sequencing and imaging we aim to succeed in our goals.
Who will benefit from our project? Our research directly benefits the millions of people affected by any of the respiratory diseases we study (asthma, IPF, COPD, pulmonary hypertension, COVID-19), their families and all of us because everyone is exposed to toxic agents present in the air that we breathe, including tobacco smoke or environmental pollution, and to microorganisms like the coronavirus SARS-CoV2, making us vulnerable to develop a lung disease anytime. Indirectly, our research benefits the health care system due to the impact of respiratory diseases that entail immense costs and burden at the hospitals as it has been demonstrated in the current coronavirus pandemic with the saturation and overload at the ICUs in multiple hospitals.
What will you achieve with your donation? If the minimal goal is reached we will detect specific proteins for cell types by immunostaining or by flow cytometry to isolate specific cell types and to characterize them through genomic techniques. Over this amount, we will be able to perform the experiments to extrapolate our observations in mouse models to the human disease, testing potential anti-inflammatory and/or anti-fibrotic therapies in explants of diseased lungs to advance in the study of the distinct diseases. With the optimal amount we could increase the number of blood samples sequenced from IPF or COVID-19 patients that we are carrying out currently showing very promising results. Of note, to obtain reliable results and accurate conclusions is necessary an elevated number of individuals.
Do you want more information? To know our research further, see details of our projects, our publications and our achievements in our website: www.hematolung.com Furthermore, you can follow us here: Twitter: @ana_saganta Instagram: apardosa81 Facebook: Ana Pardo-Saganta LinkedIN: Ana Pardo-Saganta (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ana-pardo-saganta-56877563/) To get more information not only about our research but that of our groups in our department and institution as well as the facilities in our center, you can visit the following website: www.cima.es
Team Dr. Ana Pardo-Saganta leads the group of Regenerative Medicine for Lung Disease at the Department of Regenerative Medicine at CIMA Universidad de Navarra and her trajectory is framed on the field of lung stem cells and lung regeneration. Dr. Pardo-Saganta, B.Sc in Biology (Universidad de Navarra, 2003), and PhD in Science (Universidad de Navarra, 2008), has ample experience of more than 10 years in the study of the homeostasis and the mechanisms of injury and repair of the lung. During her postdoctoral training (2009-2014) at the laboratory of Dr. Rajagopal (MGH, Boston) she found a novel mechanism of cell regulation essential to keep tissue homeostasis (Pardo-Saganta et al, Nature 2015). She also discovered a segregation of the population of airway stem cells into two distinct functional subpopulations necessary for airway regeneration post-injury. These findings established a revised model of airway epithelial hierarchy after injury (Pardo-Saganta et al, Cell Stem Cell 2015). In addition, she has identified a critical cellular interaction between airway stem cells and a new type of immune cell essential for the initiation of an immune response in asthma (manuscript in preparation), as well as novel cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in mucous metaplasia, a pathological process observed in asthma and COPD (Pardo-Saganta et al, AJRCMB 2013; manuscript in preparation). Many of these findings are a paradigm shift, being published in high impact journals. In 2014 she obtains a faculty position at MGH/Harvard Medical School (Boston) and in 2016 she joins CIMA after receiving a Ramón y Cajal Award to initiate a line of investigation novel at this institution, focused to the study of regenerative medicine in the lung. Since then, her laboratory has obtained not only very promising results in different projects but other achievements including funding in competitive calls for all the projects. The research group is comprised in addition to the principal investigator, by a postdoctoral investigator with experience in cardiac fibrosis, two graduate students with 3 years in the laboratory, and with a knowledge and experience needed for the proposed studies, a graduate student of second year from CICbiomagune that is learning necessary techniques for her project with the models available at her lab, and master students from the university. In addition, the laboratory of Dr. Pardo-Saganta has established multiple collaborations with national, European and American groups to perform her investigations.
Where we are
CIMA is the research center associated to Clinica Universidad de Navarra. CIMA is a biomedical institution leader in the field of immunotherapy, gene therapy and hepatic disorders . The scientific goal of its more than 370 professionals is to face current clinical problems to find out the most efficient treatment for each patient. To translate results from basic research to clinical application, CIMA has the Translational Science and Innovation Unit looking for collaborations with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to facilitate the application of our scientific discoveries to the patient. At the same time, through a number of platforms and services, CIMA makes its technology and scientific knowledge available to other companies and national and international institutions looking for scientific advance. More information: https://cima.unav.edu