Fellowship in support of Marc Sala: Program for Adult Care Excellence (PACE) Program

The mission of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is to improve the quality of life of CF patients as well as to facilitate development of therapies and eventually a cure for CF. To this end, the proposed mentoring plan for Dr. Marc Sala will be multi-faceted in nature, comprised by clinical training supplemented by relevant coursework as well as support for his ongoing research efforts. Dr. Sala has assembled a mentoring committee to prepare him for an academic career as a clinician and physician scientist specializing in CF. Dr. Sala’s committee will consist of co-chairs Dr. Manu Jain, Dr. Adrienne Savant, and Dr. Jing Liu. Dr. Manu Jain is a Professor of Medicine and has served as Director of the Northwestern University Adult CF Program since its inception in 1999. He is an active participant in the ongoing research projects through our CF center. He holds a Masters in Clinical Investigation and also runs a productive research lab. Dr. Adrienne Savant is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and the Director of the Cystic Fibrosis Center. Dr. Jing Liu, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, is a recognized leader in the fields of biochemistry, cell biology, and molecular biology as they relate to pulmonary diseases, and has been Dr. Sala’s primary research mentor for his scholarly activities throughout his fellowship. Dr. Sala will meet with each mentor on at least a monthly basis as well as the full committee on a semi-annual basis to oversee his multi-faceted training program. Clinical training in the care of CF patients will be mentored by Dr. Jain and the Associate Director of the Adult CF program, Dr. Michelle Prickett. Dr. Sala will participate in weekly multidisciplinary clinics for adult cystic fibrosis patients at the Cystic Fibrosis Center of Children’s Memorial Hospital (CMH) and at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH). He will also see patients in the transition CF clinic at Children’s Memorial. These clinics are comprised of physicians, advanced practice nurses, nutritionists, physical therapists, social workers, and respiratory therapists. When the adult cystic fibrosis patients are admitted to Northwestern Memorial, Dr. Sala will assist in providing inpatient care for these patients under the guidance of Drs. Jain or Prickett. He will also attend the weekly adult CF multi-disciplinary team meeting at which patient related issues are discussed as well as ongoing QI and clinical research projects. In addition he will attend the bimonthly combined adult and pediatric team meetings. With regards to the clinical research aspect of his training, Dr. Sala will participate in multicenter clinical and observational studies conducted through the Cystic Fibrosis Center. Dr. Sala will attend the combined monthly clinical research meetings and will participate as a sub-investigator on many of the trials. Throughout fellowship, as part of his career development to becoming an independent investigator, Dr. Sala has been developing a translational science research project to investigate the role of c-Jun N-terminal kinases (JNKs) in modulating hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) in an effort to mitigate pulmonary hypertension that results from many chronic lung diseases such as CF, emphysema, interstitial lung disease. He will continue to pursue this interest and has two additional grants pending review to support this aspect of his career development. Results he obtains will form the basis for an abstract to be submitted to NACFC 2016.