Associate Professor of Medicine
Section Chief, Interventional Pulmonology and Pulmonary Oncology
Director of Interventional Pulmonology Program and Fellowship
Co-Director of UNC Lung Cancer Translational Research Program
Interventional Pulmonology, Lung Cancer, Lung Nodule Management, Pleural Diseases, Tumor Immunology, Novel Drug Delivery, Robotic Bronchoscopy
The UNC Interventional Pulmonary clinical program is based on the idea of compassionate excellence. We strive to deliver the highest standard of medical care in a way that remains mindful of the patient at its center. Our program offers the complete array of minimally invasive diagnostic and therapeutic procedures including (but not limited to) robotic bronchoscopy, airway stenting, laser tumor ablation, indwelling tunneled pleural catheterization and bronchoscopic lung volume reduction. I am proud of the services we provide as a cutting edge program in a world class university hospital like UNC Chapel Hill. My research interest is focused on immune responses to malignant and infectious pleural diseases with the goal of developing prognostic biomarkers and therapeutics to improve patient outcomes. Pleural disease continues to increase in incidence and prevalence and represents a significant source of patient morbidity and mortality. As Director of Interventional Pulmonology, Carolina Center for Pleural Diseases and UNC Pleural Fluid Registry at UNC, I am dedicated to the development of immunologically directed therapeutics aimed at leveraging the ease with which we can both sample and treat the tumor microenvironment via the pleural space. My research is geared toward better understanding the tumor-immune microenvironment and how it changes over time in response to tumor progression and/or systemic/local therapy. Our focus is identification of previously undiscovered immune population subsets intended to serve as biomarkers for disease progression in addition to the development of neo-antigen based intrapleural therapies. In addition, I also lead and collaborate in preclinical, clinical, and translational work focused on the early detection and diagnosis of lung cancer. We have performed several studies in robotic and navigation bronchoscopy aimed at better understanding the factors associated with success and failure. Finally, my team is actively pursuing blood-based biomarker research aimed a risk stratification of patients with suspected and/or known early-stage lung cancer.
