Fetal and Neonatal Lung Development: Clinical Correlates and Technologies for the Future

Lung disease affects more than 600 million people worldwide. While some of these lung diseases have an obvious developmental component, there is growing appreciation that processes and pathways critical for normal lung development are also important for postnatal tissue homeostasis and are dysregulated in lung disease. This book provides an authoritative review of fetal and neonatal lung development and is designed to provide a diverse group of scientists, spanning the basic to clinical research spectrum, with the latest developments on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of normal lung development and injury-repair processes, and how they are dysregulated in disease. The book covers genetics, omics, and systems biology as well as new imaging techniques that are transforming studies of lung development. The reader will learn where the field of lung development has been, where it is presently, and where it is going in order to improve outcomes for patients with common and rare lung diseases.

Alan H. Jobe received his undergraduate degree at Stanford University, California and his MD and PhD at University of California, San Diego. His PhD research was at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego. He was faculty at UCLA for twenty years before moving to Cincinnati Children's Hospital as a Professor of Pediatrics/Neonatology. His research interests are in lung development and lung injury, primarily related to lung diseases in premature infants. He has published over 350 primary research papers and has had continuous research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for almost forty years. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and has received awards including the Virginia Apgar Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Jeffrey A. Whitsett received his undergraduate degree at Colgate University, New York and his MD at Columbia University, New York. He has been on the faculty for Pediatrics/Neonatology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital since 1977. His research spans all aspects of lung biology with an emphasis on lung development. He has published over 500 research papers of research primarily focused to lung development and disease funded by the National Institute of Health and Human Development. He received the Hamden Award for Medical Sciences in 2012, the Mary Ellen Avery Award and the Virginia Apgar Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics and Society of Pediatric Research in 2015. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine, and is a member of the council actively developing research policy for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Steven H. Abman, MD is a Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Pediatric Heart Lung Center at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children's Hospital Colorado. Trained in pediatric pulmonary and critical care medicine, Dr Abman has had long-standing interests in clinical and laboratory research and the care of neonates, infants, and children with acute respiratory failure, chronic lung disease, and long-term cardio-respiratory outcomes of preterm infants. His research has primarily focused on lung vascular development, mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis and treatment of pulmonary hypertension, and approaches to prevention of chronic lung disease (bronchopulmonary dysplasia) after premature birth.