Associate Professor of Medicine
UNC Chapel Hill
My name is Alessandra Livraghi-Butrico and I am a PhD serving as Research Associate Professor in the Pulmonary Division of the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I have been part of the Marsico Lung Institute/Cystic Fibrosis Center for the past 20 years, since I joined it as Postdoctoral Associate after receiving my PhD from the University of Milano, Italy. For the past 10 years I have been the Co-director of the UNC Marsico Lung Institute/CF Center Animal Modesl Core. In this position, I have been involved in a variety of projects aimed at understanding how failure to clear mucus affects other components of the airway mucosal immune system. Specifically, I led the efforts to comprehensively phenotype a number of animal models (transgenic, knock-out, and knock-in mice, rabbits and hamsters), affected in the main component of the mucociliary clearance system, i.e., airway surface dehydration, mucus production, and mucin assembly. The data obtained thus far suggest that murine models can nicely complement studies performed in higher-order species or simplified in vitro systems to help us understand the basic mechanisms governing airway mucus clearance in health and disease. In parallel, my independent line of research has recently focused on the influence of age and host microbiota in the composition and function of airway mucus. My research activities have focused on both technical training and mentorship. I have trained post-doctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students, and research specialists in the performance of their research duties, providing practical instructions, detailed protocols, and consultations. Part of my responsibilities is also to provide guidance to all Core users or external collaborators in matters of training, compliance, experimental design, data interpretation, and troubleshooting. I have a record of coordinating team efforts and developing constructive interactions with collaborators of diverse backgrounds and expertise.