Dr. Price Receives Prestigious Parker B. Francis Award in Support of ARDS Research


Dr. David Price

Dr. David R. Price, Instructor in Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, WDOM, has received the Parker B. Francis Award as part of the Parker B. Francis Fellowship Program.

Considered one of the most prestigious and competitive awards in pulmonary and critical care research training, Dr. Price will be funded in the amount of $225,000 (over three years) in support of his research on acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)

Dr. Price is studying a population that challenges the dogma that neutrophils are essential to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Termed neutropenic ARDS, this population lacks circulating immune cells but is paradoxically more “inflamed” than ARDS subjects with normal immune systems.

“We recently reported profound immune dysregulation in neutropenic ARDS, and we believe this immune signaling can trigger vascular cell death,” explains Dr. Price. His proposal seeks to discover how the cell death protein receptor interacting protein kinase-3 (RIPK3) interacts with other relevant vascular proteins, including the barrier protein angiopoietin-2 (ANGPT2) to limit further vascular injury.

“We will link these vascular proteins to other circulating proteins, as well as to important clinical outcomes, and explore the role of RIPK3 in lung injury development.”

Parker B. Francis founded the Puritan-Bennett Company, and the company was the leading distributor or ventilators worldwide. Mr. Francis then used the money to fund many educational efforts.