Brian Varisco, MD

Varisco’s research focuses on understanding mechanisms of lung injury, repair and regeneration. One form of lung injury common in the pediatric intensive care unit is pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome (PARDS). PARDS can develop secondary to a host of injuries and conditions with the characterization of acute onset, impaired oxygenation, and fluid accumulation in the airspaces of the lung. Epithelial cells are the cells lining the airways of the lung, and the dysfunction of these cells appears to be important in PARDS. The understudy of the role of these cells in PARDS happens because they are difficult to access and fragile. This study leveraged -omic technologies in patients with pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome to better define the pathobiology of the respiratory epithelium and characterize disease course. By longitudinally assessing the transcriptome and methylome of respiratory epithelial cells and comparing these profiles to those of bronchial brushing and to serum biomarkers, identification by the authors of patterns of injury, repair, and regeneration predicting duration of respiratory failure and sets of genes potentially represent epigenetic risk alleles predisposing patients to develop acute lung injury. This study is the first to show how the epithelium changes over time in pediatric ARDS and identifies potential targets to improve respiratory epithelial cell function in this condition.