Jun Qu co-PI on two new UB grants totaling more than $2 million

The study, titled “The Network Biology of Pathogen-Host Interactions Driving Exacerbation in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease,” is led by Sanjay Sethi, professor of medicine and division chief of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Jun Qu, professor of pharmaceutical sciences, is co-Principal Investigator.

COPD is the 3rd leading cause of death in the U.S. and is often punctuated by frequent acute exacerbations (AECOPD), mostly caused by tracheobronchial infection. The study seeks to reveal key relationships in the complex networks of microbes, immune cells and lung cells to develop illness-specific therapeutic strategies to protect against AECOPD. Qu’s lab will be developing a novel quantitative proteomics method to survey sputum and serum samples from a large clinical set, an enabling factor of this grant.

Qu is also co-PI on a four-year, $1 million U01 grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) to explore the pathophysiology of obesity.

“Multiplex mass spectrometric protein assays for precise monitoring of the pathophysiology of obesity” is led by Wei-Jun Qian, a scientist in the Biological Sciences Division at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

The prevalence of obesity has increased dramatically in recent decades in both children and adults, reaching an epidemic proportion. The NIDDK study will use targeted mass spectrometry to develop reliable standardized tests that precisely monitor the hormones closely associated with obesity, including glucose homeostasis and energy balance (e.g. insulin), pro-inflammatory markers and anti-inflammatory markers. Qu’s lab will develop an innovative approach for high-throughput, targeted quantification of key protein markers associated with obesity.