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TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Determination of Protease Burden and Activity During Organ Remodeling: Pillars and Novel Methods

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Guest Editors

Matthew Madison

Matthew Madison

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Dr. Matthew Madison completed his PhD in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Translational Biology and Molecular Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. Under the mentorship of Dr. Farrah Kheradmand, Dr. Madison investigated pathogenic alterations driven by electronic cigarettes in the airway and how those changes lead to impaired antiviral defenses and lipoprotein dysregulation. These preclinical studies were published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Upon completing his doctorate, Dr. Madison began an NIH-sponsored IRACDA fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham to further enhance his research experience while learning evidence-based tools to improve teaching among the STEM disciplines. Under the mentorship of Dr. Amit Gaggar, Dr. Madison studies the pathogenicity of exosome-bound proteases in driving the tissue damage associated with cigarette smoking  and other inhaled nicotine products. 

Camilla Margaroli

Camilla Margaroli

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Dr. Camilla Margaroli received her PhD in Immunology and Molecular Pathogenesis in 2019 from the Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Emory University (Atlanta, GA). During her thesis in Dr. Tirouvanziam’s group, Dr. Margaroli studied the mechanisms leading to neutrophil plasticity in chronic diseases, with a primary focus on lung inflammation in infants and adults affected by cystic fibrosis. Currently, Dr. Margaroli is a postdoctoral trainee in Dr. Amit Gaggar’s group at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (Birmingham, AL), where she continues to work on airway inflammation and on the impact of protease release in local responses to infection and tissue remodeling.

Collection Overview

Tissue remodeling upon injury or an inflammatory response is widely driven by the secretion of several classes of proteases by resident and recruited myeloid immune cells, namely neutrophils and monocytes/macrophages. These processes become exacerbated in chronic inflammatory diseases, in which the protease burden or presence of by-products of extracellular matrix remodeling are often associated and serve as predictors of disease severity. However, the detection of these proteases, particularly in human specimens, remains challenging and serves as a limitation to appreciate their impact on human disease. Therefore, having access to sensitive measures that allow for the quantification of the concentration of these proteases and determination of their activity levels becomes crucial not only from a mechanistic stand-point, but also from a clinical perspective related to patient care. This Methods Collection aims at providing both robust methods for the detection of proteases secreted during tissue remodeling and showcasing new and validated methods that provide better sensitivity for both protease identification, quantification, and specific activity.

Articles

Monitoring Neutrophil Elastase and Cathepsin G Activity in Human Sputum Samples
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Monitoring Neutrophil Elastase and Cathepsin G Activity in Human Sputum Samples

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Cited by 7

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2021

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