Andrew Dylag
University of Rochester, NY·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Babies born very early often need extra oxygen to survive, and that oxygen leaves a lasting mark on the developing lung. About 70% of infants born before 29 weeks of pregnancy later have breathing problems or childhood wheezing, even when they were never diagnosed with bronchopulmonary dysplasia, the classic chronic lung disease of prematurity.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Physiology
Microbiology & Immunology
- Topics
bronchopulmonary dysplasia
preterm infants
neonatal hyperoxia
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2027
What they work on
- Determine how the oxygen-rich newborn lung environment drives recruitment and seeding of lung megakaryocytes, by exposing mice to low-dose hyperoxia at different developmental ages and depleting these cells.
- Profile how neonatal hyperoxia reshapes the lung megakaryocyte transcriptome before and after activation, combining in vitro cytokine stimulation assays with RNA sequencing.
- Test whether airway hyperreactivity after influenza infection requires megakaryocytes or their product thrombospondin-1, comparing megakaryocyte-depleted mice with transgenic mice lacking thrombospondin-1 specifically in megakaryocytes.
- Assess how newborn oxygen exposure alters the bone marrow megakaryocyte pool and platelet production, and extend findings to human disease using a pediatric lung tissue repository with flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry.
More about the research
These children react badly to ordinary respiratory virus infections, with airways that tighten too easily, a condition called airway hyperreactivity. Why early oxygen exposure sets this up is not understood.
Why it matters
Preterm birth is rising worldwide, and many former preterm infants carry lifelong wheezing and unusually severe respiratory infections, driving repeated hospital admissions and ongoing care. Pinpointing lung megakaryocytes and thrombospondin-1 as a route from early oxygen therapy to twitchy airways could reveal a target for preventing or treating this long-term breathing problem in children who were born very early.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Thomas Raffay
Case Western Reserve University, OH·Medicine & Clinical Research
Determine the molecular mechanisms by which GSNO protects the newborn lung, using GSNOR knockout mice exposed to high oxygen as a model of bronchopulmonary dysplasia.
Maria Del Mar Romero Lopez
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Test whether 800 IU/day of vitamin D started within 96 hours of birth, compared with 400 IU/day started after feeding is established, improves lung mechanics measured by oscillometry and reduces wheezing at age two in extremely premature infants from the ViDES trial.
Vladimir Kalinichenko
University of Arizona, AZ·Physiology
Determine why P22-F1 PBAE/PEI/PEG nanoparticles home to lung capillary endothelial cells and no other organ, tracing cell-surface binding, uptake into the cell, escape from internal vesicles, and release of the DNA cargo.
The school
University of Rochester: 38 labs on PI Pages, $492M a year on research, 308 research doctorates a year.
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