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Jonathan Kurche, MD, PhD
Title: GRECC Advanced Research Fellow; Assistant Professor, Medicine-Pulmonary Sciences & Critical Care
Contact: jonathan.kurche@cuanschutz.edu
Research Interest
I am a pulmonary sciences and critical care specialist with research interest in the development of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a disease characterized by scar formation in the lung which highly correlates with aging. It is not well understood why aging lungs become susceptible to IPF and other types of respiratory failure and cancer.
I have joined the lab of James DeGregori to explore the hypothesis that aging lung epithelial cells start to lose their identity over time as a consequence of cumulative cycles of epigenetic change, a process termed “epigenetic erosion.” If this hypothesis is true, fibrosis could be a consequence of a “frail” epithelium which cannot respond normally to injury and inflammation. Understanding whether this epigenetic frailty is sufficient to reduce epithelial fitness is a core priority for understanding how the aging lung is predisposed to fibrosis.
Dimensions profile: See publications, grant, datasets, patents and clinical trial information.
The following images visualize Dr. Kurche's work. The word cloud is drawn from publication titles. The research collaboration map shows research relationships (click the image to enlarge):
| Publications | Grants |
|---|---|
| Lung | Lung |
| Rare Diseases | Autoimmune Disease |
| Genetics | Rare Diseases |
| Autoimmune Disease | |
| Clinical Research | |
| Infectious Diseases | |
| Immunization | |
| Vaccine Related | |
| Organ Transplantation | |
| Hematology |
Grants & Funding
Role of Muc5b in Honeycomb Cyst Formation
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a devastating disease characterized by progressive fibrosis and honeycomb cyst formation, claiming 5 million lives worldwide annually. Polymorphisms in the pulmonary mucin MUC5B promoter that lead to overexpression confer the most robust genetic risk of developing IPF.
This proposal seeks to determine mechanisms through which Muc5b regulates honeycomb cyst formation in IPF, which will help us better understand the pathobiology of IPF and potentially lead to better therapies for this devastating disease.
Funder: National Heart Lung and Blood Institute
NIH website
Publications of note:
— Muc5b Enhances Murine Honeycomb-like Cyst Formation
Recent Publications
2023
Dobrinskikh E, Hennessy CE, Kurche JS, Kim E, Estrella AM, Cardwell J, Yang IV, Schwartz DA. Epithelial Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Enhances the Risk of Muc5b-associated Lung Fibrosis. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 2023 Jan;68(1):62-74. doi: 10.1165/rcmb.2022-0252OC. PMCID: PMC9817917.
PMID: 36108173.
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2022
Kurche JS, Stancil IT, Michalski JE, Yang IV, Schwartz DA. Dysregulated Cell-Cell Communication Characterizes Pulmonary Fibrosis. Cells. 2022 Oct 21;11(20):3319. doi: 10.3390/cells11203319. PMCID: PMC9600037.
PMID: 36291184.
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Stancil IT, Michalski JE, Hennessy CE, Hatakka KL, Yang IV, Kurche JS, Rincon M, Schwartz DA. Interleukin-6-dependent epithelial fluidization initiates fibrotic lung remodeling. Sci Transl Med. 2022 Jul 20;14(654):eabo5254. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abo5254. Epub 2022 Jul 20. PMCID: PMC9981332.
PMID: 35857823.
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2021
Ma X, Zhu L, Kurche JS, Xiao H, Dai H, Wang C. Global and regional burden of interstitial lung disease and pulmonary sarcoidosis from 1990 to 2019: results from the Global Burden of Disease study 2019. Thorax. 2022 Jun;77(6):596-605. doi: 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-216732. Epub 2021 Sep 23.
PMID: 34556551.
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Michalski JE, Kurche JS, Schwartz DA. From ARDS to pulmonary fibrosis: the next phase of the COVID-19 pandemic? Transl Res. 2022 Mar;241:13-24. doi: 10.1016/j.trsl.2021.09.001. Epub 2021 Sep 20. PMCID: PMC8452088.
PMID: 34547499.
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Dobrinskikh E, Estrella AM, Hennessy CE, Hara N, Schwarz MI, Kurche JS, Yang IV, Schwartz DA. Genes, other than Muc5b, play a role in bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol. 2021 Aug 1;321(2):L440-L450. doi: 10.1152/ajplung.00615.2020. Epub 2021 Jun 23. PMCID: PMC8410112.
PMID: 34160296.
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Gally F, Sasse SK, Kurche JS, Gruca MA, Cardwell JH, Okamoto T, Chu HW, Hou X, Poirion OB, Buchanan J, Preissl S, Ren B, Colgan SP, Dowell RD, Yang IV, Schwartz DA, Gerber AN. The MUC5B-associated variant rs35705950 resides within an enhancer subject to lineage- and disease-dependent epigenetic remodeling. JCI Insight. 2021 Jan 25;6(2):e144294. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.144294. PMCID: PMC7934873.
PMID: 33320836.
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2020
Furusawa H, Cardwell JH, Okamoto T, Walts AD, Konigsberg IR, Kurche JS, Bang TJ, Schwarz MI, Brown KK, Kropski JA, Rojas M, Cool CD, Lee JS, Wolters PJ, Yang IV, Schwartz DA. Chronic Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis, an Interstitial Lung Disease with Distinct Molecular Signatures. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2020 Nov 15;202(10):1430-1444. doi: 10.1164/rccm.202001-0134OC. PMCID: PMC7667907.
PMID: 32602730.
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