The Department of Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center has established a new Biodevelopmental Origins of Lung Disease (BOLD) Center to serve as both magnet and hub for investigators across multiple disciplines with the collective mission of finding ways to improve child lung health.

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Chronic lung disease across the lifespan can often be traced to environmental insults and genetic risks that manifest during the perinatal period. Indeed, respiratory disease is the leading complication in survivors of preterm birth, with long-term effects through adulthood. Under the leadership of Jennifer Sucre, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Cell and Developmental Biology, this new center is designed to bring together scientists across disciplines to tackle the most pressing questions in developmental biology with direct relevance to human health.

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The BOLD Center will intentionally bring investigators from across campus—in imaging, informatics, clinical care, communication, developmental biology, physics, and public health—to understand the many facets of normal lung development, lung injury, and lung regeneration.

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In addition to the scientific mission of understanding fundamental questions about lung organogenesis and regeneration, the BOLD center will support existing large genomic atlases and tissue repositories, will provide resources for training in scientific communication, and will foster the development of a diverse workforce. One of the central missions of the BOLD Center is to lower the barriers for accessing research resources and to provide public-facing tools and technologies that will support multidisciplinary scientific inquiry and collaboration.