Center for Lung Development Imaging and Omics

Purpose

The United States is one of the top nations for prematurely born infants and has a correspondingly high day-one infant mortality rate. Expanding our understanding of alveologenesis is a critical step toward promoting proper lung formation in preterm infants. This, however, remains an unsolved challenge as no systematic study of the molecular components of normal lung development during late term and early childhood has previously been conducted. For this reason, NHLBI is establishing four research centers to develop a molecular atlas of the developing lung (LungMAP). The goal of this research project is to create a detailed spatial-temporal molecular atlas of the developing lung in preterm infants to young children (<2 years).