Campagnola part of major project studying pulmonary fibrosis

Paul Campagnola, the Peter Tong Department Chair and Professor of biomedical engineering, will bring his unique combination of fabrication and imaging techniques to a new $11 million project funded by the United States Department of Defense.

The effort, which includes researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, School of Medicine and Public Health, School of Pharmacy and College of Engineering, aims to better understand the scarring lung disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Allan Brasier, executive director of the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research and a professor in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism within the Department of Medicine, is leading the study.

Campagnola, whose lab uses nano- and microfabrication techniques to create 3D models of cellular scaffolds and then examines tissues through second-harmonic imaging microscopy, will receive roughly $1.7 million in funding over the four-year project.

Campagnola’s lab will use artificial intelligence to optimize tissue scaffold designs and study the behavior of co-cultured fibroblasts (a cell type that forms connective tissues) and macrophages (white blood cells that kill pathogens). Professor Melissa Skala will contribute her metabolic imaging techniques as a co-investigator.

By better understanding how the different cell types behave throughout disease progression, the researchers hope to inform new treatments for IPF.

Read more about the project from University Communications.