Special Interests
Brian Modena, M.D., M.Sc. is a physician & researcher with trained expertise in Allergy-Immunology. He completed a 2-year Allergy-Immunology clinical fellowship with a focus on treating severe asthma patients at the University of Pittsburgh, a hub for the NIH-funded Severe Asthma Research Program. He obtained a M.Sc. in Clinical & Translational Research at the Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) with a focus in Genomics and Translational research, and joined STSI and TSRI as a joint Assistant Professor in 2016. Joining National Jewish Health in 2018, he now works as a physician and NIH-funded researcher in the field of severe asthma.
His research interest involves the use of mRNA gene expression, epigenetic methylation changes, genetic variation, microbiome changes (‘dysbiosis’) and utilization of new health monitoring technologies to improve biological and clinical understanding of clinical disease, particularly in patients with severe asthma and organ transplantation.
Awards & Recognition
2016: Awarded the Inaugural American Journal of Transplantation Outstanding Article award by American Society of Transplantation (AST) and American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS).
2016: Chairman’s Award of Research Excellence, Scripps Health, San Diego, CA
2015: "Going the Extra Mile" Teaching Award, University of California San Diego
2015: The Scripps Translational Science Institute’s KL2 Scholar Pilot Award
2014: Scripps Health Pilot Award
2014: The Scripps Translational Science Institute’s KL2 Scholar Pilot Award
2014: KL2 Clinical Scholar Program Scholarship
2014: Winner of American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology National Conference Abstract Competition
Awarded the Inaugural American Journal of Transplantation Outstanding Article award by American Society of Transplantation (AST) and American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS).
Publications
Nathaniel Weathington, Michael E. O’Brien, Josiah Radder, Thomas C. Whisenant, Eugene R. Bleecker, William W. Busse, Serpil C. Erzurum, Benjamin Gaston, Nizar N. Jarjour, Deborah A. Meyers, Jadranka Milosevic, John R. Tedrow, John B. Trudeau, Hesper P. Wong, Wei Wu, Naftali Kaminski, Sally E. Wenzel, Brian D. Modena. Bronchoalveolar Lavage Cell Gene Expression in Severe Asthma Reveals Mechanisms of Severe Disease and Influences of Medications. American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine 2019, [EPub ahead of print]
Xiuxia Zhou, Carol L. Kinlough, Rebecca P. Hughey, Mingzhu Jin, Hideki Inoue, Emily Etling, Brian D. Modena, Naftali Kaminski, Eugene R. Bleecker, Deborah A. Meyers, Nizar N. Jarjour, John B. Trudeau, Fernando Holguin, Anuradha Ray, and Sally E. Wenzel. Sialylation of MUC4β N-glycans by ST6GAL1 orchestrates human airway epithelial cell differentiation associated with type-2 inflammation. JCI Insight. 2019;4(5):e122475.
Inoue H, Hattori T, Zhou X, Etling EB, Modena BD, Trudeau JB, Holguin F, Wenzel SE. Dysfunctional ErbB2, an EGF receptor family member, hinders repair of airway epithelial cells from asthmatic patients. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. 2019 Jan 9 [EPub ahead of print].