Studying T-Cell Therapy for Potential Lung Tissue Repair with Benjamin Singer, MD

About this episode

Benjamin Singer, MD discusses his team's discovery of T-cells that promote lung tissue repair in mice with severe influenza pneumonia.

Viral pneumonia can cause severe lung damage and make recovery long and life-threatening for patients. Current treatments only provide support, not repair, but Northwestern Medicine scientist Benjamin Singer, MD , wants to change that. In this episode, he details a recent discovery from his team that found laboratory-modified T-cells or induced regulatory T-cells ( iTregs ), can promote lung tissue repair in mice with severe influenza pneumonia. Singer discusses this breakthrough and how it could lead to an effective cellular therapy for patients with severe viral pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome in the future.

People in this episode

Guest: Benjamin Singer, MD

Topics covered

• T-Cell Therapy
• Lung Tissue Repair
• Viral Pneumonia
• Cellular Therapy
• Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Keywords

• T-cells
• lung repair
• viral pneumonia
• cellular therapy
• acute respiratory distress syndrome

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Northwestern Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

More episodes of Breakthroughs

• New Insights Into Dopamine with Raj Awatramani, PhD, and Daniel Dombeck, PhD · April 20, 2026 · 23 min
• Improving Testing and Diagnosis of Hepatitis C with Claudia Hawkins, MD, MPH · April 6, 2026 · 20 min
• Decoding Long COVID's Impact on the Brain with Igor Koralnik, MD · March 23, 2026 · 31 min
• Improving Imaging of the Spinal Cord with Molly Bright, DPhil · February 23, 2026 · 24 min
• New Paths for Diagnosing and Treating Lyme Disease with Brandon Jutras, PhD · February 2, 2026 · 27 min
• How Cell Function Can Shed Light on Neurodegeneration with Vladimir Gelfand, PhD · December 15, 2025 · 15 min