URMC / Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine / Research Research Active Research Laboratories: Georas Lab - The Georas Lab is interested in how the lung’s immune system responds to inhaled particles, allergens and viruses, and how this process breaks down in asthma leading to deleterious immune responses that cause allergic airway inflammation. Kottmann Lab - The Kottmann lab studies pulmonary disease and pathologic processes in the lung. The lab is primarily focused on lung scarring, or pulmonary fibrosis. Lung scarring can be caused by environmental exposures such as silica, asbestos, and radiation, or it may develop for unknown reasons (Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis). We are interested in studying the cellular mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis to identify novel therapeutic targets. Pietropaoli Lab - The foci of the Pietropaoli Lab are the clinical measurement of microcirculatory dysfunction and its relationships with vital organ dysfunction, morbidity, and mortality in sepsis as well as the relationships between red blood cell and neutrophil dysfunction in promoting microcirculatory dysfunction in sepsis. White Lab - The overall goal of the White Lab is to do better preclinical testing of potential novel treatment options for pulmonary arterial hypertension. Our current approach is with a rat model that recapitulates the histopathology, severe hemodynamic alterations, and right ventricular heart failure seen in advanced human disease.