{"id":146176,"date":"2026-08-24T11:36:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T15:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/?post_type=bu-article&p=146176"},"modified":"2026-08-24T11:37:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T15:37:37","slug":"convergent-research-yields-results-with-nih-grant","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/news-events\/articles\/2026\/convergent-research-yields-results-with-nih-grant\/","title":{"rendered":"Convergent Research Yields Results with NIH Grant"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Convergent Research Yields Results with NIH Grant \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n
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August 24, 2026<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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A new grant from the National Institutes of Health will support a collaborative effort to uncover how the lung\u2019s microscopic structure shapes its response to inhaled particles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project is led by Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Hadi Nia<\/a>, PhD, and Joseph Mizgerd<\/a>, ScD, the Jerome S. Brody, MD, Professor of Pulmonary Medicine at the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, with Professor of Biomedical Engineering Bela Suki<\/a>, PhD, and Assistant Professor of Pulmonary, Allergy, Sleep & Critical Care Medicine Katrina Traber<\/a>, MD, PhD, serving as co-investigators. By bringing together expertise in biomedical engineering, lung physiology, immunology, and infectious diseases, the grant will strengthen collaboration between the College of Engineering and the medical school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This new NIH grant represents the next stage of convergent research among BU colleges. It will further connect engineering innovation with fundamental and clinically relevant questions in lung biology.<\/p>Hadi Nia, PhD<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Hadi Nia, PhD<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The four-year, $2.8 million grant will build on the team\u2019s development of the \u201ccrystal ribcage<\/a>,\u201d an imaging platform that allows scientists to observe the intact, breathing lung in real time and at cellular resolution. Using this technology, the investigators discovered that inhaled particles do not spread evenly throughout the lung. Instead, alveoli\u2014the tiny air sacs responsible for gas exchange\u2014appear to be organized into a mosaic pattern. Some groups of alveoli, called \u201ctiles,\u201d consistently receive inhaled particles, while neighboring \u201cbands\u201d receive very little. This unexpected organization was recently reported in a Nature Biomedical Engineering paper and has been observed across different types of inhaled materials, animals of different ages, and multiple species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis new NIH grant represents the next stage of convergent research among BU colleges,\u201d said Nia. \u201cIt will further connect engineering innovation with fundamental and clinically relevant questions in lung biology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When different teams across BU schools and campuses address together important questions that neither can address alone, the research grows in new directions and the process of discovery is both more fun and more productive. <\/p>Joseph Mizgerd, <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Joseph Mizgerd, ScD<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Mizgerd added, \u201cWhen different teams across BU schools and campuses address together important questions that neither can address alone, the research grows in new directions and the process of discovery is both more fun and more productive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project will investigate whether tile and band alveoli differ in their anatomy, oxygen levels, development, gene activity, and immune responses. The researchers will also study how these regions respond to potentially harmful inhaled particles and how deposited materials move through the lung and into the circulation. The findings could reshape the current understanding of how the lung is organized and may have broad implications for respiratory disease, environmental exposures, aerosol-based drug delivery, and the development of new treatments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This collaboration grew from an interdisciplinary partnership initially supported by an award from the Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering. That early investment enabled researchers from the College of Engineering and the medical school  to combine complementary technologies and scientific perspectives. The partnership has since produced the Nature Biomedical Engineering study, additional research advances, new federal funding, and important training opportunities for students, including F30 fellowships for physician-scientist trainees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new grant from the National Institutes of Health will support a collaborative effort to uncover how the lung\u2019s microscopic structure shapes its response to inhaled particles. The project is led by Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Hadi Nia, PhD, and Joseph Mizgerd, ScD, the Jerome S. Brody, MD, Professor of Pulmonary Medicine at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":903,"featured_media":146182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"Convergent Research","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[532],"bu-publication":[367],"medicine-article-category":[],"medicine-topic":[],"news-article-category":[539,385],"news-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/146176"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146176"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/146176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146183,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/146176\/revisions\/146183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146176"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=146176"},{"taxonomy":"medicine-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/medicine-article-category?post=146176"},{"taxonomy":"medicine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/medicine-topic?post=146176"},{"taxonomy":"news-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article-category?post=146176"},{"taxonomy":"news-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topic?post=146176"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=146176"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=146176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}