$20 million fundraising initiative will support efforts to improve treatment for lung disease

UCLA Health has launched a $20 million fundraising initiative to create a new center for advanced lung disease at theDavid Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. To date, the initiative has secured $4.37 million for the Lung Health Research Accelerator Fund, including three gifts of $1 million each from Michael and Linda Keston, William Pierpoint, and Jeffrey and Robin Raich, and a total of $1.37 million from nine other donors.The fund will support the work of Dr. John Belperio and Dr. Joseph Lynch III in the medical school ’s division of pulmonary and critical care medicine. Belperio’s research is focused on identifying the causes of and potential treatments for transplant rejection and advanced lung diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, sarcoidosis an d interstitial lung disease.Because of the overlap among those conditions, discoveries related to one disease could help lead to advances in understanding and treating the others.“Existing treatments for advanced lung diseases are unimpressive and leave patients with one option — lung transplantation,” said Belperio, who holds the Guitiara Pierpoint Endowed Chair in Interstitial Pulmonary Fibrosis. “Unfortunately, transplantation is not a cure, with only half of lung transplant recipients surviving five years. “Our patients deserve better. We need novel treatments that improve patients’ quality of life and ultimately support their survival. Our laborat...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news