Bander Award supports e-cigarette research

In this pre-COVID-19 photo, Natalie Gassman, Ph.D., left, assistant professor of physiology and cell biology, works with Griffin Wright, a student in the Basic Medical Sciences Graduate Program, in her lab at the Mitchell Cancer Institute.

Natalie Gassman, Ph.D., assistant professor of physiology and cell biology at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine and a cancer researcher at USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute, recently received the 2020 USA Center for Lung Biology Murray Bander Faculty Development Award. The award, which is given each year, seeks to foster innovative discoveries in pulmonary research and promote faculty development.

As a member of the USA Center for Lung Biology, her research seeks to answer questions about how electronic cigarettes cause lung injury and offer new information about the potentially compromised immune function in electronic cigarette users.

“Unfortunately, we don’t yet understand what causes the lung damage or how it manifests so quickly,” Gassman said. “Electronic cigarette use has grown exponentially in adolescents and young adults, and reports of lung injury and compromised lung function among electronic cigarette users have also increased dramatically.”

According to Gassman, her work examines dihydroxyacetone (DHA) – a small molecule produced by electronic cigarettes. “We have shown that DHA exposure causes cell injury and impairs cell function, which may contribute to lung damage,” she said. “We have identified a protein, triose kinase/FMN cyclase (TKFC) that is critical to the incorporation of DHA into cells and their metabolic pathways.”

The Bander Award will allow Gassman and her lab to examine if DHA, through TKFC, promotes lung injury by changing lung cell function and altering immune responses.

Gassman said her research has far-reaching potential to impact patient care. “There is a pressing need to understand how electronic cigarettes damage the lungs in order to develop treatment strategies for users and regulations to restrict dangerous ingredients and/or electronic cigarette use,” she said. “This research will answer questions about how electronic cigarettes cause lung injury and offer new information about the potentially compromised immune function in electronic cigarette users.”

Murray Bander, a World War II veteran who moved from New York to Mobile to operate a clothing shop, died from complications of pneumonia in 2001. He left his estate to the USA College of Medicine in 2003, and the Murray Bander Endowment for the Center for Lung Biology was established to support scholarly activities in lung biology.