Wayne A. Mitzner, Ph.D.

Dr. Mitzner’s research is focused on the structural basis of physiologic lung function and how this normal structure manifests itself in pathologic situations and environmental exposures. Current work is concerned with understanding the mechanisms that underlie the chronic lung tissue destruction that occurs in emphysema. These functional and immunological studies in the mouse are directed toward investigating mechanisms of alveolar destruction with age or with emphysematous lesions. How this tissue destruction impacts the interaction between the lung parenchyma and airways plays a key role in the ability to breathe in this pathology, and ongoing work is involved in studying this interaction. Additional funded work involves evaluating methods of impairing the ability of airway smooth muscle to shorten as a possible treatment of asthma, called bronchial thermoplasty.

Dr. Mitzner's lab is housed in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His research team studies basic mechanisms behind the physiologic and pathologic manifestations of lung diseases such as emphysema and asthma. Current research investigates why chronic changes continue to exist in the lungs long after the initial insults are completely gone. Such insults lead to tissue damage, causing immunologic responses that seem to persist almost indefinitely. This manifestation is analyzed using state-of-the-art phenotyping in whole animal models simultaneously with assessment of the immunologic status of cells and interactive signaling.