\ students and staff , and are held virtually via Zoom .
Application Procedure
Content and materials for this curriculum can be found at the program ' s online drive .
Research Opportunities UAB Interventional Pulmonology fellows are expected to be involved in mentored projects and scholarly pursuits during their training , regardless of their career plans . Fellows must complete mentored project requirements to be eligible to sit for board examination and to graduate .
Fellows are required to complete a research project ( or a mentored Quality Improvement project ) and will be expected to present their work in the form of an abstract at a national meeting . Alternatively , a published review paper in the area of investigation would fulfill the requirement for scholarly activities . During their training , fellows may pursue a masters level degree to support their career plans .
Our fellowship application requirements include the following :
- Online application through Interventional Pulmonology Fellowship Application System ( IPFAS ) located on the Association of Interventional Pulmonology Program Directors ( AIPPD ) website . - Curriculum vitae - Personal statement - Three letters of recommendation , one of which must be from your Program Director - Copies of all USMLE score reports - A summarized , HIPPA-compliant procedure log listing the type of procedure and number of procedures performed . Please do not provide a list of every individual procedure performed .
- All fellowship appointments are arranged by the National Residency Matching Program ( NRMP ) for Fellowships in Pulmonary Diseases , following the Matching Program schedule . All Interventional Pulmonology Fellowship candidates must participate in the NRMP program . - Applications are accepted starting July 1 . - The deadline for submitting applications is August 31 . - Applicants considered for a position will be invited to interview . - Interviews are usually conducted September through early October each year . - The academic year begins July 1 and ends June 30 .
COPD and BPD : Inhalation of live Lactobacilli lessens lung inflammation and improves lung function
by Jeff Hansen In preclinical models , the inhalation of a mixture of living Lactobacilli bacteria attenuated pulmonary inflammation and improved lung function and structure for the chronic lung diseases bronchopulmonary dysplasia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease .
This study , published in the journal Nature Communications , determined the mechanism of this live biotherapeutic product ? a powder mixture of living Lactobacilli bacteria ? to reduce neutrophilic inflammation and reduce a broad swath of inflammatory markers in BPD and COPD , says Charitharth Vivek Lal , M . D ., a University of Alabama at Birmingham neonatologist who co-led the research with Amit Gaggar , M . D ., Ph . D ., a UAB pulmonologist .
Their findings ? provide a paradigm for the progression of structural lung disease ,? Lal said , because it identifies the Lactobacilli as critical to regulating lung protease activity that is linked to the destruction caused by matrikine generation , extracellular matrix turnover and chronic neutrophilic inflammation that damages air sacs in the lungs .
A possible protective role for Lactobacilli in the lung and the possible use of Lactobacilli to treat chronic lung disease had its foundation in 2016 when Lal and UAB colleagues discovered that the airways of infants with severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia had decreased numbers of Lactobacilli , increased numbers of proteobacteria and increased concentrations of proteobacterial endotoxin . In this latest study , the UAB researchers provide a mechanism of action for the Lactobacilli treatment to decrease downstream disease development and showed safety and effectiveness of the live biotherapeutic treatment in a mouse pup model for BPD and three mouse models of COPD .
Bronchopulmonary dysplasia develops in some extremely premature infants after damage induced by high oxygen tension or mechanical ventilation needed to keep them alive . COPD occurs in older people , especially smokers , and kills about 130,000 Americans a year and about 3 million more worldwide .
PULMONARY , ALLERGY , AND CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE