Mulligan Lab
Michael S. Mulligan, MD
Principal Investigator
Professor, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery
Director of the Lung Transplant Program and the Advanced Lung Disease Surgery Program
Billiana Hwang, PhD, MPH
Research Scientist
Our multidisciplinary research team aims to merge both basic and clinical research to improve care and outcomes for patients with pulmonary diseases. The Mulligan lab is focused on understanding mechanisms and developing new prevention or treatment strategies in pulmonary diseases by combining basic science with translational research.
Research goals include:
- Characterizing the role of toll like receptors in lung ischemia reperfusion injury;
- Developing novel therapeutic approaches for prevention of lung ischemia reperfusion injury;
- Identifying the regulatory pathways that drive ischemic tolerance.
New directions for research include identification of biomarkers for NSCLC, understanding the pathophysiology of bronchiolitis obliterans and developing potential treatment strategies, and understanding mechanisms that drive lung transplant tolerance and rejection.
downtown Seattle. The Mulligan lab currently occupies an in vitro laboratory space in the Center for Lung Biology and is fully equipped for biochemical and molecular biologic techniques including PCR, flow cytometry, ELISA, and immunohistochemistry. This research facility is also equipped for tissue culture including incubators, laminar flow hoods, and a hypoxic chamber for additional in vitro cell culture studies. Shared resources including FACS and pathology cores are available for current studies. The shared surgical animal core provides an x-ray room, sterilization and wrapping room laundry facilities, and the usual auxiliary facilities. The Mulligan lab also has a fully equipped in vivo operating space at the University of Washington that includes rodent ventilators and Zeiss Universal S3 15xbi-operatory microscope.