Zachary McAllister receives NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award

Zachary McAllister, a chemical engineering Ph.D. candidate in Professor Joseph Zasadzinski's research group, was recently awarded the NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award for his research, "Three-dimensional Confocal Microscopy Visualization and AFM-IR Chemical Mapping of Lung Surfactant Monolayer Collapse Morphologies." The purpose of the Kirschstein-NRSA program is to enable promising predoctoral students to develop into productive, independent research scientists, and to obtain mentored research training while conducting dissertation research. The award is designated for three years and includes a stipend.

Lung surfactant is vital to oxygen exchange in all air breathing animals, and issues with lung surfactant in humans are often seen in premature babies; this is known as neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (NRDS). It is also seen in adults who have experienced lung trauma in the form of blunt trauma (such as a car accident), disease (such as COVID-19), etc.; this is known as acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Importantly, there is currently no known cure for ARDS. 

McAllister's research aims to understand the chemical and physical nature of lung surfactant to a greater degree with two goals in mind. First, pioneering the use of infrared-coupled atomic force microscopy (AFM-IR) to determine the lipid and protein distribution in lung surfactant monolayers at submicron resolution and relate these chemical distributions to domain formation and collapse. Secondly, determining the relationships between lung surfactant monolayer collapse and the minimum surface tension a lung surfactant composition can achieve. This is relevant as patients with NRDS and ARDS often have elevated surface tension within the lungs which leads to difficulty in breathing, damage in the lungs, and even death. Using these techniques, McAllister hopes to promote new and improved treatments to ARDS and NRDS while documenting effective techniques for interfacial science research.