SIU Med School Faculty Receive Grants to Study Lung Disease

Three faculty members at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield have been awarded grants from the American Lung Association (ALA) for the study of lung disease and lung health. The grants total $150,000, a combination of national and local funding, which includes proceeds from the 13th annual ALA Springfield Golf Classic that benefits the Richard H. Moy Pulmonary Research Fund at SIU.

"We’re pleased that money raised locally and nationally can support research right here in central Illinois," said Harold Wimmer, chief executive officer, ALA of Illinois.

A two-year grant was awarded to Patricia Hopkins-Price, Ph.D., research assistant professor of pulmonary medicine, to study the role of obesity on asthma. The total budget for the grant is $80,000. The study will look at people who have asthma and are obese and participating in a weight loss program to see if their asthma improves as they lose weight. The research may lead to the development of new treatments and preventative interventions for asthma. Hopkins-Price's previous research focused on respiratory dysfunction in sleep and type I diabetes and physiological responses to training.

A one-year grant was awarded to Dr. Janak Koirala, assistant professor of infectious diseases, to study mycobacterium avium complex, a common infection that affects patients with chronic lung disease and HIV. The study will look at ways to improve the immune function in patients. The total budget of the grant is $35,000. The research could lead to development of new treatments that will help patients more effectively fight lung infections. Koirala's research has been funded by the ALA for three years. His previous research focused on HIV and staph pneumonia.

A one-year grant was awarded to Dr. Akshay Sood, assistant professor of pulmonary medicine, to study the effectiveness of a reactive telephone helpline for smokers. The total budget of the grant is $35,000. The study will evaluate the Illinois Tobacco Quitline, as a method of intervention for quitting smoking. Sood's research has been funded for three years by the ALA. His previous research has focused on asthma, occupational lung disease and tuberculosis in health care workers.

Hopkins-Price joined the SIU faculty in 1993. She earned her doctorate and master's degrees at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge (1986, 1980). She earned her bachelor's from Tulane University in New Orleans (1978) and Newcomb College of Tulane University in New Orleans (1971).

Koirala joined SIU’s faculty in 1999, after having completed a joint three-year fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago. Koirala completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Illinois Hospitals/Westside V.A. Medical Center in Chicago (1996). He earned his medical and undergraduate degrees from Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal, (1991, 1983) and his master's in public health from the University of Illinois at Chicago (1999).

Sood joined the SIU faculty in year 2001. He completed fellowships in pulmonary and critical care medicine and occupational and environmental medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn. (1997). He completed his residency in internal medicine at the St. Luke's Hospital and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York (1994). Sood earned his medical degree at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi (1990). He earned his master's in public health at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn. (1997).

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