Christiane E. L. Dammann

My main research interest is the biology of lung cell differentiation in normal and abnormal lung development I am specifically interested in the elucidation of lung development promoting factors and prevention of injury induce interaction with critical aspects of lung development. Lung development is a finely tuned arrangement of biological events that involves the regulation of many signaling pathways that interact to regulate gene expression. Disturbance in these events can interfere with lung morphogenesis and result in incorrect differentiation of pulmonary cells, leading to lung diseases. Our group has shown that NRG1β, a growth factor, endogenously released from the mature fetal lung fibroblast, stimulates the onset of fetal surfactant synthesis. NRG1β signals its effect through the ErbB4 receptor. ErbB4 signaling is also critical for the development of type II cells in the fetal lung. We are interested in understanding this signaling process more fully and its role in fetal lung development with a long term goal of developing strategies to prevent bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in preterm infants. I have recently joined the clinical trial group lead by Dr. Davis, being mostly involved in clinical trials to prevent BPD and other lung problems in preterm infants.

I have received formal training as a pediatrician and neonatologist, and completed research fellowships in developmental and cancer biology at Tufts and Harvard University. I am the Director of the Developmental Biology Basic Science Laboratory and the Perinatal Neonatal Fellowship Training Program in the Division of Newborn Medicine at the Tufts Medical Center at Tufts Medical Center. I am also holding a faculty appointment at the Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology Program at the Sackler School for Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University. Last year I have been elected as the Chair of the Organization of Neonatal Program Directors (ONTPD).