Our Research Impact

The Northwestern Medicine DREAM Program (Double Lung Transplant Registry Aimed for Lung-Limited Malignancies, clinical trial registry number NCT05671887) is just one example of federally funded research at SQLIFTS making an impact on patients’ lives. Here is the story of Cornelia Tischmacher, another patient with lung cancer who made a lifesaving decision.

A Mother’s Journey for a Second Chance at Life 

In January 2018, eight months after giving birth to twins, Cornelia Tischmacher of Berlin, Germany, saw a doctor for a case of pneumonia that would not go away. The 40-year-old art historian and gallerist, who was healthy, worked out, and did not smoke, was shocked when tests showed she had stage 3 lung cancer. To do everything she could to stay alive for her children, Tischmacher underwent surgery and chemotherapy in June 2018. 

But by October 2019, Tischmacher’s cancer had returned. Doctors recommended palliative care, and by June 2024 she could no longer breathe without supplemental oxygen. That is when she discovered Northwestern’s DREAM Program, in which select patients with advanced lung cancers confined to the lungs are considered for a double-lung transplant. Tischmacher had telehealth visits with Ankit Bharat, MD, chief of thoracic surgery and director of the Canning Thoracic Institute and of the SQLIFTS Translational Innovation Program. 

Tischmacher was accepted to the DREAM Program. In December 2024 she boarded an air ambulance and flew from Berlin to Chicago. She was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and placed on the transplant waiting list on Christmas Eve. Two days after being listed, Tischmacher received new lungs. 

Tischmacher must remain in Chicago near her medical team for the year following her transplant procedure. However, her husband, Udo Kittelmann, and their 8-year-old twins, Leo and Lucie, are remaining in Berlin for the twins’ schooling. Being far from her family has been difficult for Tischmacher, but in April 2025 the whole family finally met for a joyful reunion in Chicago. It was the twins’ first time visiting their mother since she had flown from Berlin in December. 

Read more about Tischmacher’s story at Northwestern Medicine Newsroom.

Striving to Save Lives and Improve Outcomes

Lung transplant patients at Northwestern and their loved ones have been directly impacted by research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which supports physicians and scientists seeking to improve outcomes after lung transplantation. Our research has led us to develop new approaches such as “lungs in a box” and “lungs in a fridge” to more efficiently use donated organs. Historically, only 20% of lungs that were donated were used for transplantation. We have more than tripled that number so more patients have access to this life-saving treatment. In addition, most of our patients now wait less than one week for an organ, and very few die before one becomes available.

Findings from our research program have also allowed us to offer transplantation to patients like Tischmacher with lung cancer that is too advanced for standard surgical therapy and to patients who have been cured from a recent cancer. In the past year, more than 40 patients from around the world have benefited from this procedure. The success of our research program enabled the Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute to perform the highest number of lung transplants in the United States in 2024.

Teamwork Makes DREAM Work

Healthcare is a team effort, especially in a field as complex as lung transplantation. Tischmacher and other patients in the DREAM Program get to know Dr. Bharat and members of the lung transplant team at the Canning Thoracic Institute. But the work of the DREAM program is also supported behind the scenes by another team, one of researchers.

At SQLIFTS, Dr. Bharat leads investigators in our lung transplantation project, funded by a program project grant awarded by NIH to dissect the molecular mechanisms of rejection to improve the lives of lung transplant recipients. Other NIH grants have supported innovative preclinical findings by Dr. Bharat and his laboratory, such as the discovery of a surprising connection between COVID-19 and cancer regression. Although these and other recent discoveries are still at early stages, they pave the way for future innovations in the clinic that will help patients like Cornelia Tischmacher. 

Lung Cancer on the Rise in Young Women

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, and doctors have noticed a startling new trend. Says Dr. Bharat, “On a daily basis, we’re seeing more young women being diagnosed with lung cancer. Conventionally, lung cancer has been associated with smoking and older age. While smoking certainly increases your chances of developing lung cancer, we’re seeing an explosion of lung cancer cases in patients who have never smoked or had limited smoking exposure—like Cornelia. The majority of them are young, and the majority are women, and we still aren’t sure why this is happening.” Hence, the Canning Thoracic Institute has started several research programs to try and understand why more women are being diagnosed with lung cancer. 

Working to Understand the Biology of Cancer

Meanwhile in the laboratory, researchers at SQLIFTS and across Northwestern work tirelessly to understand the biology of cancer. Navdeep Chandel, PhD, director of the SQLIFTS Discovery Program, leads a laboratory dedicated to discovering new biology linked to mitochondria and metabolism that controls physiological responses and diseases including cancer. Dr. Chandel and his research group recently discovered the fundamental target of one of the most prescribed drugs, metformin. Commonly prescribed for diabetes, this drug lowers blood sugar by interfering with mitochondria. These findings provide insight into how metformin could work to slow aging and reduce fibrosis. NIH-funded research directed by Dr. Chandel has opened an entirely new area of therapies to treat a host of cancers by targeting their vulnerable metabolic machinery. These contributions were recognized by his receipt of the 2023 Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences.

Karen Ridge, PhD, director of the SQLIFTS Health Education Program and core leader of the lung transplantation project, has also published research in Oncogene on non–small cell lung cancer. This publication authored by Dr. Ridge and members of her laboratory was supported by multiple grants awarded by NIH. Dr. Ridge’s funding includes the program project grant for the SQLIFTS lung regeneration project, which she leads. Services were provided by essential core research facilities funded by both indirect costs and grants of their own. And Alexandra Berr, PhD, and Kristin Wiese, MD, were supported by the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care’s T32 training grant, also directed by Dr. Ridge. This federally funded program has trained and supported many physicians at Canning Thoracic Institute and many more throughout the United States. To learn more, please read the section below on the T32 Lung Science Training Program.

Essential Research Saves Lives

For Cornelia Tischmacher, all of this research has culminated in a priceless opportunity to live her life and spend more time with her children. “Seeing my children for the first time in four months was absolutely wonderful. The weight of my illness had weighed them down, and to see me healthy again was overwhelming—but in a good way,” said Tischmacher. “It’s a happy continuation of the story because it could have been so different. When we said our initial ‘goodbyes’ in December, it was much more dramatic because we didn’t know how things would go.” 

Tischmacher’s incredible journey and heartwarming reunion have been covered by the Chicago Sun-Times, CBS News Chicago, WBEZ Chicago, US News & World Report, Euronews Health, and HealthDay News (also reprinted by U.S. News & World Report). Her story and those of other patients whose lives have been saved are the ultimate motivation for our work at SQLIFTS—research made possible by federal funding. 

The Super-SCRIPT (Successful Clinical Response In Pneumonia Therapy, SCRIPT²) Systems Biology Center, a cooperative agreement research program funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), aims to advance our understanding of severe pneumonia.

An Innovative, Systems Biology Approach

Led by Richard Wunderink, MD, SCRIPT² combines cutting-edge multi-omics technologies, clinical measurements, and machine learning to explore the complex interactions between humans and pathogens that influence the course of pneumonia in patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). With a focus on both community-acquired pneumonia and hospital-acquired/ventilator-associated pneumonia, the center seeks to identify biomarkers and therapies that can improve patient outcomes and help physicians in the ICU decide on the best treatment for each patient.

Machine Learning Reveals Patterns in the Data

SCRIPT Tech Core lead and project co-investigator Benjamin Singer, MD, was senior author of a SCRIPT Center study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation in which machine learning was applied to clinical data from patients in the ICU to search for patterns predicting poor outcomes. Dr. Singer and the SCRIPT researchers found that secondary pneumonia drove many COVID-19 deaths among critically ill patients in the ICU who required mechanical ventilation, not the overwhelming inflammation that had initially believed to have been responsible. Says Dr. Singer, “Our study highlights the importance of preventing, looking for and aggressively treating secondary bacterial pneumonia in critically ill patients with severe pneumonia, including those with COVID-19.”

This publication was funded by multiple grants awarded by NIH, in addition to that for the SCRIPT research program. For example, co-first-author Catherine Gao, MD, was supported by the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care’s T32 training grant, directed by SQLIFTS Health Education Program director and lung regeneration project leader Karen Ridge, PhD. (To learn more about this crucial federally funded training program, please see the section below on the T32 Lung Science Training Program.) 

Dr. Singer’s funding for his laboratory includes the program project grant for the SQLIFTS lung aging project and the program project grant for the lung regeneration project, on which he is a sub-project leader. Co-senior author Alexander Misharin, MD, PhD, director of the SQLIFTS Technology Program, is also supported by these and other grants from NIH. And co-senior-author Scott Budinger, MD, director of SQLIFTS and leader of the lung aging project, also receives funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs for research in his laboratory. 

"Proof of Principle, Rapid Translation"

The insights from this federally funded study have subsequently informed treatment decisions made by physicians caring for mechanically ventilated patients in the ICU at Northwestern and beyond. As Dr. Singer told ABC7 Chicago, “We've learned a lot [about] how to take care of these patients once they come into hospital and ICU, what medications to give, what medications not to give.” Reflecting on the experience, he later told new Feinberg members of the AOA Medical Honor Society, “This is proof of principle, rapid translation and also a story about humility. Revaluating your assumptions, revaluating and learning from the data that you generated.” 

Meanwhile, the SCRIPT research team continues to use this machine learning approach to find solutions leading to even better care for critically ill patients. Read more about findings from the SCRIPT Center at Feinberg News Center. Learn how the SCRIPT Center has been supported by investment in next-generation sequencing in Northwestern Medicine Magazine. View more news and publications from the SCRIPT Center here. Meet all of the SCRIPT research team members, contributors, and collaborators here. 

The SQLIFTS lung aging project, funded by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) program project grant, has generated surprising results with implications for future biomarkers of and interventions for diseases of aging.

Time Ticks Faster for Longer Genes

In an article published in Trends in Genetics  and featured on the front page of cell.com,  Thomas Stoeger, PhD and collaborators showed that biological aging is associated with decreased expression of longer genes. To describe this phenomenon, found in multiple species including humans, Stoeger and his coauthors introduced the term gene-length-dependent transcription decline (GLTD).

Cell types such as neurons are particularly susceptible to GLTD. One reason is that neurons express long genes, including some of the longest genes known. Another reason is that neurons are postmitotic, so they have more opportunity over their long lives to accumulate DNA damage. These factors predict that GLTD would be seen in Alzheimer's disease—which is what researchers have found. In addition, GLTD is observed under other conditions known to accelerate biological aging.

This article, shared widely in news releases from both Cell Press and Northwestern University and reported by Medical News Today, expanded on earlier research published in Nature Aging that was featured on Northwestern Now and highlighted by the National Institute on Aging. This discovery was also featured in a Front Matter report published in PNAS. Read more about the project here.

Looking Ahead to the Future of Aging Research

A new focus on the molecular-level physical processes of aging could provide new insights into old genomic datasets, paving the way for new diagnostic tests or therapeutic targets. As Dr. Stoeger told PNAS, "There could be paradigm shifts in interventions, and a new class of biomarkers and interventions that are conceptually different from what others have done in the past."

Dr. Stoeger's publication in Nature Aging was supported by numerous grants awarded by NIH, including the program project grant for the SQLIFTS lung aging project, led by co-author SQLIFTS director Scott Budinger, MD, and for which co-authors SQLIFTS Technology Program director Alexander Misharin, MD, PhD, Health Education Program director Karen Ridge, PhD, and Discovery Program director Navdeep Chandel, PhD, serve as a sub-project and core leaders. This work was also funded by grants awarded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Services were provided by essential core research facilities funded by both indirect costs and federal grants of their own.

For his work in the Trends in Genetics article, Dr. Stoeger was supported by an NIH K99 award. The purpose of this research career development award is to produce a strong cohort of new independent investigators from a pool of outstanding postdoctoral researchers. These funds provide support for research as awardees transition from mentored positions into tenure-track or equivalent faculty positions. Dr. Stoeger is now an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care with his own laboratory.

The link between transcript length and aging is just one of many innovative discoveries to advance the field of aging that will be made by Dr. Stoeger in his career with support from federal research funding.

The Northwestern University Lung Science Training Program, funded by a T32 training grant awarded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), encourages bright, enthusiastic, well-trained, academically oriented MDs and PhDs to pursue careers in pulmonary biology investigation.

Training Tomorrow's Leaders in Science and Medicine

Now in its second decade, the T32 Lung Science Training Program prepares tomorrow’s leaders as they meet the challenges of today by supporting predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees’ research into the pathophysiology of lung disease and translation of these discoveries to the bedside. This federally funded program has trained and supported many physicians now at Canning Thoracic Institute and many more throughout the United States. 

The T32 Lung Science Training Program is directed by SQLIFTS Health Education Program director Karen Ridge, PhD, who also leads the SQLIFTS lung regeneration project and is a core leader of both the lung aging project and lung transplantation project, all of which are funded by NIH program project grants to support research conducted in her laboratory. Currently Dr. Ridge’s research group includes three PhD candidates in the Driskill Graduate Program in Life Sciences who are supported in their training by this T32 grant. Says Dr. Ridge of SQLIFTS, “Our structured programs prepare scientists and physician-scientists for successful careers in lung health.”

Dr. Ridge is also the executive director of the Kimberly Querrey Summer Research Program, a paid, competitive summer research experience hosted by the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care for high school and undergraduate students in which T32 trainees serve as mentors. Although this program is generously supported by an endowment from Northwestern University trustees Louis A. Simpson and Kimberly K. Querrey, it relies on a robust network of NIH-funded faculty members who can host interns in their laboratories for the summer.

Thus, the T32 Lung Science Training Program is just one example of the critical importance of federal research funding in educating and training future generations of scientists and physicians.