Kassandra Allbright, MD

Dr. Allbright’s primary T32-funded project is to investigate the role of Wnt pathway antagonist Wif1 in the pathogenesis of COPD. She has used previously generated single cell RNA sequencing data to show subpopulations of Alveolar Type II cells (as well as other lung epithelium including ciliated cells) have differential expression of Wif1 in COPD vs. healthy patients. Dr. Allbright has performed immunofluorescent staining on human lung tissue including co-stains with markers of AT2 cells to quantify and localize these changes. Having optimized an organoid model of lung epithelium using primary human cells, she has begun the process of testing the progenitor function of these cells in COPD and healthy donors with and without recombinant Wif1 protein. She plans to collect this data from 5 patient and 5 control donors with several outputs including ultimately bulk RNA sequencing. Additionally, Dr. Allbright is investigating the role of Wif1 in driving a senescent phenotype in these cells using RT-PCR and staining of commonly used markers including p16/p21/p53.