Navdeep Chandel, assistant professor of medicine and expert in oxygen-sensing and cell apoptosis, will head the fourth project, which will examine the mechanisms regulating alveolar epithelial cell death following exposure to hyperoxia.

The fifth project, led by David Dean, associate professor of medicine and microbiology-immunology, will focus on the mechanisms by which non-viral genes delivered to the alveolar cells via electroporation are transported from the cytoplasm to the nucleus in stretch and non-stretch conditions.

The cell culture and physiology core is led by Karen Ridge, research assistant professor of medicine, and Peter Sporn, associate professor of medicine, and contributes to the Program Project by providing the investigators with the very difficult-to-isolate alveolar epithelial cells and conducting the physiologic studies.

Working on the PPG as co-investigators are Scott Budinger, assistant professor of medicine; Laura Dada, research assistant professor of medicine; David Kamp, associate professor of medicine; and Aaron Ciechanover, visiting professor of medicine and cell and molecular biology and the year 2000 recipient of the Albert and Mary Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research.

Additionally, based on both the caliber of research and the outstanding multidisciplinary group of scientists working on the PPG, the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine has received a five-year training grant for six predoctoral and postdoctoral Ph.D. and M.D. fellowships per year.

NIH-sponsored training grants are awarded only to the nation ™s leading research programs.

The grant will enable the program to build on the strengths of current training initiatives in the basic sciences, in translational, public health and health services research and on the considerable scientific and research training experiences of the faculty.