Skip to main content
Audio Interview

Respiratory diseases: recent advancements (2026)

Published on August 31, 2026   16 min

Other Talks in the Playlist: Annual Interviews

Please wait while the transcript is being prepared...
0:00
Interviewer: Jahar Bhattacharya and his group from Columbia University have recently published a paper describing how alveolar macrophages regulate lung air-blood barrier through connexin 43-dependent signaling. Jahar has kindly joined us today to discuss the novel biology behind these findings and the potential for translating his work into new therapies. Jahar, thank you so much for joining us today. What do you see as the most groundbreaking insights your study adds to how the lung senses and responds to mechanical stress at the alveolar level? Prof. Bhattacharya: There has been a lot of confusion and inadequate understanding of how the lung responds to alveolar stretch. Just to explain, the lung consists of the airways, which are tubes through which we breathe our tidal breath. When we take a breath, the breath goes through these tubes. That's called the airway. The airway takes the breathed air, the tidal volume, to what's known as the parenchyma, which is the substance of the lung, so to speak. The parenchyma is made up of tiny air sacs, and these are called alveoli. These sacs are measured in microns in human lungs; they're about 200 or 300 microns in diameter. They're very, very tiny, and you have to use a microscope to view them. So the issue is that when you stretch the parenchyma of the lung and this happens when you take a breath. Clearly, when you inhale air from the atmosphere, the air has to go somewhere,

Quiz available with full talk access. Request Free Trial or Login.

Show
Hide

Respiratory diseases: recent advancements (2026)

Embed in course/own notes