October 2025 Webinar

Christopher Evans, PhD

Dr. Christopher Evans is currently a Professor of Medicine-Pulmonary Sciences & Critical Care and and Associate Division Head of Research at the University of Colorado. Studies in his lab focus on how airway mucins regulate respiratory health and disease. Two secreted mucins--MUC5AC and MUC5B--are the predominant macromolecular components of airway mucus. MUC5AC and MUC5B regulate host mucosal defense in health, but their excessive or aberrant expression is associated with transient infections and with a wide range of lung diseases such as asthma, cystic fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pulmonary fibrosis, and lung cancer. Current projects focus on how MUC5AC and MUC5B polymerize through formation of disulfide bonds between molecules; how specific sugars are added to MUC5AC and MUC5B under healthy and inflamed conditions; how secreted mucin glycopolymers affect mucus function; and how mucins interact with leukocytes and structural cells in the lungs. Together, these factors all affect host defense, tissue injury, inflammation, and repair.

Burton Dickey, MD

Dr. Dickey is a Professor of Pulmonary Medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he was Department Chair from 2001-2021. For the past twenty-five years, his research focus has been airway mucin secretion. His laboratory uses a mouse genetic approach, knocking out or overexpressing genes in airway secretory cells to study their function, and using these genetically modified mice in models of pathologic challenge. Together, this provides fundamental insight into the mechanism of mucin secretion, how its dysregulation contributes to pathophysiology, and a framework for rational therapeutic intervention.

John Fahy, MD

John Fahy is a Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), where he directs a translational clinical research laboratory focused on uncovering disease mechanisms and advancing new treatments for patients with asthma, COPD, and other muco-obstructive lung diseases. Dr. Fahy received his medical degree from University College Dublin and a master’s degree in molecular medicine from Trinity College Dublin. He completed clinical and research training in pulmonary and critical care medicine at UCSF before joining the pulmonary and critical care division and the Cardiovascular Research Institute at UCSF as faculty in 1993. During this career Dr Fahy he led multiple NIH-funded clinical and research programs in asthma and airway diseases, including program project grants, the Severe Asthma Research Program (SARP) and the Precision Interventions for Severe Asthma (Precise). His research program made fundamental discoveries related to clinical and molecular subtypes of asthma and COPD, especially in relation to Type 2 immune dysfunction and airway mucus pathology. His work on airway mucus plug pathology led to the development of a novel inhaled mucolytic drug technology. Dr. Fahy was elected to the American Association of Physicians (2016), received scientific achievement awards from the American Thoracic Society (2015, 2017), and was awarded the Gold Medal in Asthma from the European Respiratory Society (2019). He delivered the UCSF Faculty Research Lecture in Translational Science in 2020.

Manali Mukherjee

Dr. Manali Mukherjee is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at McMaster University and holds the prestigious AstraZeneca Chair in Respiratory Disease. A self-proclaimed eosinophile, she has been long associated with the International Eosinophil Society—first as a trainee board member and now as an elected at-large member of the Board of Directors. She directs her own translational research program on "Lung autoimmunity and biomarkers", with on ongoing interest on understanding the role of mucus occlusions in chronic lung diseases

Andrew Higham

Andrew Higham is an award-winning translational scientist in the Division of Immunology, Immunity to Infection and Respiratory Medicine at the University of Manchester, UK. His research is focused on the role of inflammation, particularly type 2 inflammation, in tissue damage and airway remodelling, and its contribution towards the pathophysiology of small airway disease in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma. Over the past 10 years, his research has supported the development of novel treatments for people with smoking-related lung disease.