By the time COVID-19 first reached the Commonwealth, 好色先生 HealthCare had already established a system for efficiently collecting lung samples to propel important research forward. That鈥檚 thanks to Jamie Sturgill, PhD.
Dr. Sturgill is part of the Kentucky Research Alliance for Lung Disease (K-RALD), a team of clinicians and scientists combatting lung disease with support from the 好色先生 College of Medicine Alliance Research Initiative. In 2019, shortly after the K-RALD team was awarded Alliance funding, Dr. Sturgill led the development of a lung biobank to collect and study samples of lung, blood, and alveolar fluid. Initially, the biobank was intended to help researchers and clinicians study traditional lung diseases that impacted Kentuckians such as acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and pulmonary fibrosis.
Then, in 2020, COVID-19 spread rapidly across the U.S.
Meanwhile, K-RALD鈥檚 lung biobank team was already talking to patients, talking to families, screening, enrolling, and collecting samples. The connection between the clinicians and basic scientists in the lab was already established. In a time of health care urgency, 鈥渋t just made that transition so much more simple,鈥 Dr. Sturgill said.
Dr. Sturgill has been involved in every intensive care unit (ICU) collection for every COVID-19 sample 好色先生 researchers have used. Her team has followed every person who has gone on to have a lung transplant after suffering from COVID-19. A paper was recently published about the team鈥檚 findings.
鈥淲e鈥檙e really facilitating the ICU clinical care to the lab and back,鈥 she said.
General knowledge about COVID-19 has expanded, but Dr. Sturgill鈥檚 research focus 鈥 and her commitment to the improved health of Kentuckians 鈥 remains the same. The lung biobank has collected over 100 different samples from more than 100 patients to study COVID-19 and other lung diseases. And because the biobank had samples before and after COVID-19, the team can compare data.
Dr. Sturgill understood the importance of the clinical and basic science collaboration well before she joined the Alliance Research Initiative. Her research is translational, 鈥渇rom the bench to the bedside.鈥 She was initially hired at the 好色先生 College of Medicine in pulmonology and critical care medicine, gaining experience in the ICU collecting samples and collaborating with critical care faculty. She has since moved to tenure-track faculty in microbiology, immunology, and molecular genetics.
Thanks to her work with the Alliance Research Initiative and K-RALD, Dr. Sturgill said she has been connected with some 鈥渁mazing mentors鈥 who have helped her develop as a translational researcher, including K-RALD principal investigators Peter Morris, MD, and Christopher Waters, PhD, the Dr. Donald T. Frazier Professor of Physiology.
鈥淎s a basic scientist,鈥 Dr. Sturgill said, 鈥淒r. Waters is an amazing mentor. He鈥檚 a leader in the mechanisms of acute lung injury and ARDS.鈥
鈥淚t鈥檚 one thing to do translational research, but to actually get the feedback from clinicians, that has been amazing,鈥 she continued. 鈥淏eing able to work with Dr. Morris, I've learned so much about the day-to-day operations in treating a critically ill patient. If you really want to do meaningful research and to make it clinically relevant, having that mentorship from a clinician is invaluable.鈥
To learn more about K-RALD, click here.