We are delighted to have received new funding from the Medizinstiftung of the Medical Faculty at Philipps University Marburg to advance our research on RNA-mediated regulation of inflammatory responses in the human lung.

At the center of the project is an immune-competent human lung tissue culture model that allows us to study inflammatory responses in a physiologically relevant tissue environment. A major focus of the newly funded work will be single-cell analysis, enabling us to resolve how individual immune and tissue cell populations respond to inflammatory stimulation and to identify the cellular networks controlled by inflammation-associated long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs).

Importantly, the model will also provide an opportunity to move from observation to targeted intervention. Using antisense approaches, we will selectively inhibit candidate lncRNAs and determine, at single-cell resolution, whether and how these interventions can reshape inflammatory responses within human lung tissue.

By combining human tissue models, single-cell technologies and targeted RNA manipulation, the project aims to establish a platform for identifying and functionally testing new RNA-based strategies to modulate pathological inflammation.

The project builds upon our previous work on inflammation-associated lncRNAs published in 2025 in Nature Communications.