The American Lung Association in Georgia has announced that Ahmet Coskun — a researcher at the Georgia Tech Research Corporation — will be the recipient of the organization’s Innovation Award.
The Innovation Award is a grant that the American Lung Association awards to independent researchers that want to build upon their existing body of work to conduct research for lung health, according to the health organization’s website.
Coskun received the award for a lung cancer research project that he and his team are working on.
The objective of Coskun’s project is to provide single cell metabolic imaging technology in order to visualize multiple cell types, which Coskun’s team will then use to decipher how immune cells function in response to cancer cells, as it relates to the their ongoing research on lung tumors.
To accomplish this, Coskun and his team will be utilizing mini-organ technology that mimicks lung physiology outside of the human body.
“This research will shed light on future immune-targeting drug designs to achieve higher response rates to immunotherapies for lung cancer patients, potentially extending the healthy living and lifespan of lung cancer patients significantly,” said Coskun.
Michele Howell, the executive director at the American Lung Association in Georgia, says that Coskun’s innovative research is important, especially amidst a multitude of issues Georgians face in relation to the health of their lungs.
“Here in Georgia, we face lung health challenges every day like higher smoking/vaping rates, high lung cancer/COPD rates, natural disasters, etc. In addition, more than 1.3 million people in our state are living with chronic lung disease,” said Howell.
“We are excited for Dr. Coskun to join the American Lung Association Research Team to help improve lung health here in Georgia and across the nation.”