Four Los Angeles Researchers Awarded American Lung Association Grants to Further Lung Health Studies

Lung health research is more important than ever. Never have we faced so many challenges to our lung health, including COVID-19, vaping and smoke from increased wildfires. Today, the American Lung Association in California announced four Los Angeles-based recipients of their coveted research awards.

The 2022 recipients are:

Julio Camarero, University of Southern California, received the Lung Cancer Discovery Award for work related to antitumor therapies for lung carcinomas which could provide novel approaches to treatments for this these types of cancer.

Tamra Burns Loeb, Ph.D., University of California – Los Angeles, was granted a COVID-19 Respiratory Virus Research Award for her work to reduce community spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses among under-served Black and Latino populations living with HIV and cardiovascular disease risks.

Peter Mullen, Ph.D., University of Southern California, received a COVID-19 Respiratory Virus Research Award for his work on better understanding the positive effects of certain nutrients, such as methionine, can reduce SARS-CoV-2 levels and decrease severity of the virus, potentially making a rapid impact in treating current and future respiratory virus infections.

David Brian Shackelford, Ph.D., University of California – Los Angeles, is the recipient of a Lung Cancer Discovery Award for his efforts to test new a therapy for treating mutant lung tumors that are resistant to other forms of therapy. This work is focused on the reduction of non-small cell lung cancer deaths which claimed an estimated 135,000 lives in the United States in 2021.

“We are delighted to recognize and support the work of four distinguished researchers right here in Los Angeles with American Lung Association Research Grants in 2022. As California has more residents suffering from chronic lung cancer (4,645,000) than any other state in the country, it is heartening to see that much work is being done to address lung disease at our own leading Universities,” said Frances Mojica, Executive Director of the American Lung Association in California. “We congratulate and thank Dr. Camarero, Dr. Loeb, Dr. Mullen and Dr. Shackelford for their groundbreaking research.” 

In the 2022-2023 grants cycle, the Lung Association is funding $13.2 million for more than 130 lung health research grants. For this round of funding, the organization placed a greater focus on strategic partnerships with key organizations like American Thoracic Society and CHEST, and grants that focus on equity like the Harold Amos Scholar.

Research projects funded by the Lung Association are carefully selected through rigorous scientific review and awardees represent the investigation of a wide range of complex issues. Awards were given in eight different categories; ALA/AAAAI Allergic Respiratory Diseases Award, ALA/ATS/CHEST Foundation Respiratory Health Equity Research Award, Catalyst Award, COVID-19 Respiratory Virus Research Award, Dalsemer Award, Innovation Award, Lung Cancer Discovery Award, and Public Policy Research Award. 

The Lung Association’s Nationwide Research Program includes the Awards and Grants Program, and also our Airways Clinical Research Network, the nation's largest not-for-profit network of clinical research centers dedicated to asthma and COPD treatment research.

For more information about the new grant awardees and the entire American Lung Association Research Team, visit Lung.org/research-team.