Lung Health Research Grants
Breathe PA's Lung Health Research Grants
Since 1904, Breathe PA has empowered western Pennsylvanians to breathe better and live healthier through education and awareness of lung health in our community. Breathe PA serves thousands of adults and children annually with free or minimal cost programs and services. Research funding is yet another service commitment to our community.
Breathe PA is issuing a request for proposals (RFP) for the purpose of conducting research leading to improved care and outcomes for patients with lung disease. This year, Breathe PA will fund two tracks of research, each focused on improving the lung health of western Pennsylvania:
- Clinical Research
- Social Innovations
The clinical research track will concentrate on studying lung health to enhance medical knowledge and improve patient care and experiences. Meanwhile, the social innovations track will focus on creating and implementing new processes, ideas, or organizational models to address social issues and improve the well-being of patients with lung disease. Each track will have a separate grant issued for up to a maximum of $50,000 each, from July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027. An applicant may apply for funding under one or both tracks but may only receive one grant.
If you have any questions or require more information, please feel free to contact Casey Monroe by email cmonroe@breathepa.org.
2026 - 2027 Awardees
Author: Dr. Jinming Zhao
Title: Vitamin E as a Novel Nutraceutical for the Prevention and Treatment of Viral-Induced Asthma Exacerbations
Summary: Respiratory infections, particularly those caused by the common cold virus (rhinovirus (RV)), are major triggers of asthma attacks or exacerbations, especially in children. Vitamin E, an essential nutrient with anti-oxidant properties, has been shown to reduce airway mucus and inflammation in asthma. However, whether it impacts asthma exacerbations is unknown.
This project, led by Dr. Zhao at the University of Pittsburgh, uses primary human airway epithelial cells to determine whether vitamin E will decrease the infection of RV in these cells, and thereby potentially limit the impact on asthma attacks. These cells serve as a research model to investigate whether inexpensive and easily available vitamin E can reduce RV infection and improve immune dysregulation in asthma.
Successful completion of this study will advance our understanding of the mechanisms by which rhinovirus infections worsen asthma symptoms. Importantly, it could identify vitamin E as a potentially safe, accessible, and cost-effective intervention in asthma, paving the way for future clinical trials.
Author: UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh
Title: School Care Connect: Promoting Asthma Management and Support for Children
Summary: This project aims to improve asthma management for children by strengthening care coordination. Key strategies include expanding School Care Connect, which enhances collaboration between medical providers and school health professionals; piloting a new model for delivering asthma care during the school day; and increasing support for families through community-based sites that provide convenient access to asthma education and resources. Collectively, we expect these efforts will create a coordinated, multi-setting approach to pediatric asthma care that improves access to services and equips school nurses and families to support optimal asthma control.
Author: Allegheny County Health Department
Title: Allegheny County Health Department's Tuberculosis Program Smartphone Program
Summary: The Breathe PA Lung Health Research Grant allows the Allegheny County Health Department's Tuberculosis (TB) Program to continue providing smartphones to patients receiving treatment for active TB. The phones support both live and recorded Video Directly Observed Therapy (VDOT), making it easier for patients to take their medication as prescribed while reducing barriers to care. This builds on the VDOT program launched in 2025 through a previous Breathe PA grant. We expect this continued investment to improve treatment adherence and support successful patient outcomes.
Additionally, this grant will be used to translate TB educational material into more languages. Providing education materials in multiple languages will increase patients’ health literacy around TB and medication adherence. Translated materials are critical for those with latent TB (LTBI), or non-infectious patients, who are not observed taking medication. Treating LTBI or non-infections TB patients is a TB elimination strategy recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and National Tuberculosis Coalition of America.
2025 - 2026 Awardees
Author: Dr. Georgios Kitsios
Title: AIRWISe: Automated Interpretation of chest Radiographs for Weighting Infection Severity
Summary: The AIRWISe project (Automated Interpretation of chest Radiographs for Weighting Infection Severity) is a cutting-edge initiative to improve how pneumonia severity is assessed using chest X-rays. While chest X-rays are the most common imaging test for lung infections, their interpretation often varies between clinicians, limiting their usefulness for guiding treatment decisions. AIRWISe aims to solve this by creating an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that provides consistent, objective, and easy-to-understand assessments of pneumonia severity.
Unlike many existing AI models that rely on imperfect data, AIRWISe is built using expert-annotated images from over 1,000 patients, ensuring high data quality and clinical relevance. The project will also integrate features from chest CT scans to enhance the accuracy of predictions and create visual overlays—such as color-coded heatmaps—that help clinicians understand and trust the AI’s findings.
Importantly, AIRWISe will be used to analyze chest X-rays taken over time, helping doctors track how a patient’s pneumonia is progressing and whether treatments are working. The goal is to lay the groundwork for future clinical use of this tool, with the potential to improve pneumonia care in Western Pennsylvania and beyond.
This one-year project will deliver a validated, interpretable AI prototype and serve as the foundation for larger-scale clinical studies in the future.
Author: Dr. Tina Ndoh
Title: Mon Valley Environmental Health (MoVE Health) Intiative
Summary: The Mon Valley Environmental Health (MoVE Health) initiative addresses severe environmental health disparities in Southwest Pennsylvania’s Monongahela Valley, where industrial air pollution poses significant risks to residents, particularly near US Steel’s Clairton Coke Works. In partnership with Valley Clean Air Now (VCAN), the initiative will engage 500 community members in a study assessing respiratory health, air quality awareness, and protective behaviors. The project includes spirometry testing, tailored health education, and follow-up evaluations to measure impact. Findings will guide Breathe PA’s outreach, support policy advocacy, and evaluate a replicable environmental health literacy model—empowering residents with tools to reduce pollution exposure and improve health outcomes.
Author: Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD)
Title: Enhanced Video Direct Observed Therapy
Summary: Directly observed therapy (DOT) is recommended by the CDC to ensure completion of active Tuberculosis treatment. Video DOT (VDOT) is an innovative alternative to in-person DOT. VDOT allows for better patient focused care, increased patient compliance, and eases the process of taking daily medication. The Allegheny County Health Department TB Program will implement VDOT capabilities utilizing patient surveys delivered via electronic health record (EHR) EPIC and asynchronous videos uploaded via secure delivery through the EHR.
The anticipated outcome is that by completion of the project, all non-new active cases of TB (non-new being on treatment for greater than one month) will have been transitioned to VDOT with provider approval. Patients will collect medication monthly at clinic and perform either synchronous or asynchronous VDOT with TB program nursing staff daily.
Author: Dr. Franziska Rosser
Title: Air Pollution, childhood asthma, and airway endotypes in Western PA
Summary: The project will utilize preexisting data from children recruited from UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh to better understand how outdoor air pollution is associated with type of childhood asthma, if asthma-type modifies the relationship of outdoor air pollution and asthma outcomes, if reported use of an air quality index is associated with improved asthma outcomes, and to provide insights into healthcare provider discussion of OAP in children with asthma. We expect that our results will provide novel insights into how outdoor air pollution is associated with childhood asthma, thereby leading to improved treatment and intervention strategies to improve outcomes for children.
Author: UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh
Title: School Care Connect: Promoting Asthma Management for Children through School-Health Partnerships
Summary: The School Care Connect program is to enhance asthma care quality for school-aged children and facilitate the care coordination needed for best health outcomes and academic success. This initiative will be led by a UPMC Children’s School Nurse Navigator who will foster collaboration between medical providers and school nurses, deliver point-of care guidance, and offer resource support to school nurses, students, and caregivers. Initially targeting UPMC Children's patients with poorly controlled asthma and schools located in Western Pennsylvania with high asthma prevalence, School Care Connect aims to improve asthma management of children and reduce asthma-related school absenteeism.
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