Department of Medicine Faculty Profile

Joe G.N. Garcia
Section of Pulmonary / Critical Care
Professor of Medicine
Lowell T. Coggeshall Professor of Medicine;
e-mail: jgarcia@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu

Training:

Degree	Year	Institution	Area
BS	1976	University of Dallas	Biology
MD	1980	University of Texas Southwestern Medical School	Medicine
Residency	1983	University of Iowa Hospitals	Internal Medicine
Fellowship	1985	Albany Medical College	Pulmonary Diseases

Academic Interests:

Dr. Garcia is a leading authority on lung biology and disease, the genetics of acute lung injury and the molecular mechanisms of edema formation, a process also termed vascular leak. Vascular leak occurs when blood cells and fluid escape from blood vessels into the surrounding tissues, including the lungs. This follows acute injury or infection or in response to the stresses of mechanical ventilation. When severe, flooding of the lungs often leads to organ damage or death. Dr. Garcia's studies of the basic biology of this process have focused on signal transduction pathways and the cytoskeleton of the endothelium. Results from Dr. Garcia’s lab have led to novel approaches to prevent vascular leak, reduce physiologic derangements and restore the integrity of vessel walls. His laboratory continues to identify novel polymorphisms which confer susceptibility to acute and chronic lung diseases such as pulmonary hypertension, asthma, lung cancer and acute lung injury.

Clinical Interests:

Prevention and treatment of pulmonary edema, occupational lung disease

Representative Publications:

Singleton PA, Dudek S, Ma SF, Garcia JGN. Transactivation of sphingosine 1 receptors is essential for vascular barrier regulation. Novel role for hyaluronan and CD44 receptor family. J Biologic Chemistry [Epub September 2006]; 281(45):34381-93, 2006.
Gao L, Grant A, Halder I, Brower R, Sevransky J, Maloney JP, Moss M, Shanholtz C, Yates CR, Meduri GU, Shriver MD, Ingersoll R, Scott AF, Beaty TH, Moitra J, Ma SF, Ye SQ, Barnes KC, Garcia JGN. Novel polymorphisms in the myosin light chain kinase gene confer risk for acute lung injury. Am J. Resp Cell Mol Biol [Epub January 2006], 34(4): 487:95, 2006.
Flores CF, Ma SF, Mancuso K, Ober C, Garcia JGN. A variant of the myosin light chain kinase gene (MYLK) is associated with severe asthma in african-americans. Genetic Epidemiology [Epub January 2007] (in press), 2007.
Gao L, Ma SF, Flores C,Ye SQ, Maloney JP, Zambelli A, Lavoie T, Donnelly S, Simon B, Barnes KC, Garcia JGN. Role of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) in acute lung injury (ALI) and sepsis: Association of a promoter polymorphism and increased gene expression. Translational Research: J Laboratory Clinical Medicine, (in press) 2007.
Guo Y, Singleton P, Graham D, Arjan M, Cotter R, Van Eyk J, Garcia JGN. Quantitative proteomic analysis of human endothelial cell membrane rafts: Evidence of MARCKS and MRP regulation in the sphingosine 1-phosphate-induced barrier enhancement. Molecular Cellular Proteomics [Epub January 2007] (in press) 2007.