{"id":131197,"date":"2022-10-21T11:48:46","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T15:48:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/?p=131197"},"modified":"2023-10-17T12:28:03","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T16:28:03","slug":"nia-earns-nih-award-for-ground-breaking-lung-research-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/2022\/10\/21\/nia-earns-nih-award-for-ground-breaking-lung-research-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Nia Earns NIH Award for Ground-Breaking Lung Research Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HadiAssistant Professor Hadi Nia<\/a> (BME<\/a>, MSE<\/a>) has earned the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director\u2019s New Innovator Award. Granting him nearly $2.5 million, the award will empower Nia to pursue novel models and tools to image the lung in real time and at cellular resolution. He will probe the links between the physics, biology, and immunity of the lung, in both sick and healthy specimens.<\/p>\n

A complex vital organ, the lung faces risks from air-borne pathogens and pollutants as well as cancer, making it imperative that we learn more about the dynamics of the origin and progression of lung disease. But current methods for studying the lung offer a limited picture.<\/p>\n

To bring new clarity to pulmonary research, Nia has developed and is refining a technology he calls LungEx<\/em>. It is a system for ex vivo studies in which a ventilator and perfusion pump keep the lung functioning, while a transparent container Nia calls the \u201ccrystal ribcage\u201d allows for observation of the organ\u2019s workings.<\/p>\n

This innovation promises to unlock insights into the real-time dynamics of respiration and circulation, the trafficking of immune and cancer cells, the transmission of air-borne pathogens and the immune system\u2019s response. The new understanding of the lung that should result will have implications for drug development and delivery, lung transplantation, and even aging.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese high-risk, high-reward mechanisms are truly empowering for our lab, as they allow us to ask bold questions without worrying too much about funding,\u201d says Nia. \u201cWith our promising preliminary data in the context of primary and metastatic lung cancer, as well as pneumonia, our team is very excited about the transformative potentials of our proposed technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nia\u2019s is one of 103 High-Risk, High-Reward research grants the NIH has awarded this year for early-stage investigators who have proposed innovative, high-impact ideas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe science advanced by these researchers is poised to blaze new paths of discovery in human health,\u201d says Lawrence A. Tabak, acting director of NIH. \u201cThis unique cohort of scientists will transform what is known in the biological and behavioral world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nia\u2019s collaborators on the project include Professor Bela Suki<\/a> (BME), who sparked his interest in the lung, as well as Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine faculty Giovanni Ligresti<\/a>, Katrina Traber<\/a>, Sarah Mazzilli<\/a>, and Joseph Mizgerd<\/a>, who have provided expertise on pulmonary diseases. Nia also credits the Neurophotonics Center<\/a> for providing imaging equipment and expertise.<\/p>\n

Nia has received multiple awards for his research, including Beckman Young Investigator and NIBIB Trailblazer awards. He earned his bachelor\u2019s degree from Sharif University of Technology in Iran and his doctoral degree from MIT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Assistant Professor Hadi Nia (BME, MSE) has earned the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director\u2019s New Innovator Award. Granting him nearly $2.5 million, the award will empower Nia to pursue novel models and tools to image the lung in real time and at cellular resolution. He will probe the links between the physics, biology, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21311,"featured_media":132260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[236,257,899,531,541,535,522,550,255,1033,909],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131197"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131197"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145377,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131197\/revisions\/145377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}