Georgia Tech researcher funded to study lung health

The American Lung Association in Georgia has announced that Ahmet Koskun – a Georgia Tech Research Corporation researcher – will be the recipient of the organization’s Innovation Award.

The Innovation Award is a grant from the American Lung Association to independent researchers who want to build their body of work in lung health research, according to the health organization’s website.

Coskun received the award for a lung cancer research project he and his team are working on.

The goal of the Koskun project is to provide single cell metabolic imaging technology to visualize multiple cell types, and in conjunction with the Koskun team’s research on lung tumors, it will be used to understand how immune cells work to respond to cancer cells. .

To achieve this, Coskun and his team use mini-organ technology that mimics lung physiology outside the human body.

“This research will illuminate future immunosuppressive drug designs to increase the response to immunosuppressive treatments in lung cancer patients, which may significantly extend the healthy lives and life expectancy of lung cancer patients,” Coskun said.

Michelle Howell, executive director of the American Lung Association in Georgia, says Koskun’s innovative research is important, especially among the many concerns Georgians face about their lung health.

“Here in Georgia, we face lung health issues every day such as high rates of smoking/breathing, high rates of lung cancer/COPD, natural disasters, etc. In addition, over 1.3 million people in our state have chronic lung disease.” Howell said.

“We are thrilled to have Dr. Kosku join the American Lung Association research team to help improve lung health here in Georgia and across the country.”