The applicant is an assistant professor of Gyn/Ob, Pediatrics, and Pharmacology with considerable experience in the biology of the pulmonary surfactant system and in surfactant replacement therapy. The applicant's long term career objective is to develop a multidisciplinary research program which will allow him to combine interests in basic pulmonary cell biology with experimental therapeutic approaches to the treatment of acute lung disease. The candidate's more immediate goals are to expand the current cell biology expertise of his laboratory, and to gain more hands-on experience in the area of molecular biology. The RCDA will allow the applicant to decrease his current teaching and administrative responsibilities in order to spend full time in the laboratory and achieve these goals. The applicant's Institution is supportive of his goals and agree with the candidate's perception of how to achieve them. There are a number of NIH-funded senior faculty at the State University of New York with interests in pulmonary research who collaborate with the applicant and have formed a Cardio-Pulmonary Research Group to facilitate communication. In addition, the University is proceeding with a new research building, slated for completion by 1992-93, which will provide extensive space for groups of investigators with common interest. Finally, the applicant has extensive collaborations with the University of Rochester and has been invited to spend time in the laboratory of Dr. Stuart Horowitz there in order to gain training in molecular biology. The research proposed for this award period involves studies of the cell biological mechanisms responsible for surfactant-related changes which occur in oxygen toxicity, and determination of the efficacy of therapeutic interventions directed at the cellular level. The experiments use state of the art techniques, including laser flow cytometry, to study the effects of in vivo oxygen exposure on type II pneumocyte metabolic function. These studies will then be combined with experiments to determine the efficacy of cell directed anti-oxidant therapy.
