Rory Mullins

• BSc (Hons) Physiological Sciences
• A potential role of epithelial mesenchymal transition in aspiration injury of the lung

Lung transplantation is a therapeutic option for patients with advanced heart-lung disease but long term survival is limited by chronic rejection. Gastric aspiration (the movement of gastric juice up the gullet and into the lungs) is increasingly implicated as a risk factor, but the best ways to measure this are not presently known.

Pepsin (a stomach enzyme) and bile acids, both of which are present in gastric aspirations, will have their potential to cause damage measured. They will be tested on two different cell lines of human bronchial epithelial cells.

Project Supervisor: Professor Jeffrey Pearson, Institute of Cell & Molecular Biosciences

Funding Source: Newcastle University