Sex Matters: Translational Advances in Respiratory and PAH Research

Krithika Lingappan is a neonatologist and physician-scientist whose laboratory focuses on how biological sex shapes endothelial and immune responses in the developing lung and contributes to bronchopulmonary dysplasia and other prematurity-related morbidities.

Her work integrates murine models, single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, and human endothelial and macrophage studies to define sex chromosome driven mechanisms of neonatal hyperoxic lung injury, with a particular emphasis on sex-specific differences in the pulmonary microvasculature and distal lung capillary endothelium.

Sanda Predescu is a researcher at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, specialising in the molecular mechanisms of pulmonary hypertension (PH). Her work focuses on endothelial cell function and how its disruption drives vascular remodelling and disease progression.

She has made key contributions to understanding intersectorin-1 signalling, sex differences in PH, and the role of long noncoding RNAs in vascular disease. Her research bridges basic science and clinical application, with the aim of identifying new therapeutic targets.