About Us

New Type of Asthma Study: PrecISE is different because it is a study to learn which treatments are best for each person, instead of only people with the most common types of asthma. This individual-based care is called Precision Medicine. We will use Precision Medicine to understand which treatments are best for each person. The Precision Interventions for Severe and/or Exacerbation-Prone Asthma Network (PrecISE) is a clinical study sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). PrecISE's physician scientists are dedicated to researching better treatments for people living with severe asthma. 

PrecISE is a clinical study that uses precision medicine for severe asthma. Precision medicine is an approach to the prevention and treatment of disease that uses information about an individual's or group's specific disease process, symptoms, and treatment responses, to identify the medicines and therapies that are most likely to be effective for them.

Researchers from over 30 locations across the US are involved in PrecISE. 

COVID-19 Response

See the latest updates about COVID-19 and PrecISE here. 

Study Site Locations

Click on a state below for a list of study sites by city. You can also view a list of all states, and the cities where study locations are located, here.

Study Site Locations - Click on the state to find your nearest site

 

 

 

 

Principal Investigators

Praveen Akuthota,MD University of California San Diego

Dr. Akuthota is an attending physician in the medical ICU at the UC San Diego Hillcrest Medical Center. He is the corresponding Principal Investigator for the UCSD Clinical Center in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s PrecISE Network that will be studying precision interventions in severe asthma. He is a Clinical Affiliate at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, working with them in developing joint efforts in asthma research. Dr. Akuthota is an At-Large Member of the Board of Directors of the International Eosinophil Society.

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Eugene R. Bleecker,MD University of Arizona

Eugene R. Bleecker, MD is a Professor of Medicine, Co-Director of the Division of Pharmacogenomics, and Co-Chief of the Division of Genetics, Genomics, and Precision Medicine in the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona.  He has major scientific interest and expertise in translational approaches in allergy, asthma, and COPD, including defining clinical disease heterogeneity and biomarker endotypes, genetics of disease susceptibility and severity, pharmacogenetics of response to therapy and clinical trials in airway diseases. Throughout his career he has had an active role in designing and performing clinical trials that provide an evidence basis for therapeutic interventions in asthma and COPD.

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Mario Castro,MD MPH University of Kansas

Dr. Castro received his medical degree from the University of Missouri in 1988 and his Masters in Public Health from the St. Louis University School of Public Health in 1998. Previously, he was the Alan A. and Edith L. Professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Radiology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri; and also was the Director of the Asthma and Airway Translational Research Unit (AATRU) at Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Castro is the Division Chief for Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center, where he is also the Vice Chair for Clinical and Translational Research, and Director of the Rainbow Clinical Trials Science Unit, Frontiers.

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Loren C. Denlinger,MD University of Wisconsin

Dr. Loren C. Denlinger earned his medical degree from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics. He specializes in asthma care, pulmonary and critical care medicine, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), among other focus areas. Dr. Denlinger cares for patients at the Pulmonary Medicine Clinic and Trauma and Life Support Center, both at University Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, and the Severe Asthma Clinic at UW Health. He is also an associate professor in the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

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Serpil Erzurum,MD Cleveland/UVA

Serpil Erzurum, MD, is the Alfred Lerner Chair of the Lerner Research Institute and a staff physician at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Erzurum earned her medical degree from Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, completed residency training in Internal Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, pulmonary and critical care fellowship training at the University of Colorado/National Jewish Center, and postdoctoral training at the Pulmonary Branch at NIH. Her scientific contributions in pulmonary medicine have contributed to diagnostic and therapeutic advances in asthma and pulmonary vascular diseases.

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John Fahy,MD ,MSc University of California, San Francisco

Dr. Fahy is the Director of the Airway Clinical Research Center at UCSF and Professor of Medicine at UCSF.  He received his medical degree from University College Dublin in 1985, and he completed internal medicine training in Ireland before beginning fellowship training in pulmonary and critical care medicine at UCSF in 1989. Dr. Fahy is active clinically as an attending physician in the UCSF Chest Faculty Practice and on the UCSF Critical Care Medicine Service.

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Ben Gaston,MD Indiana University

Dr. Ben Gaston is a Professor of Pediatrics at Indiana University, and the Vice Chair for Translational Research. Dr. Gaston was previously the Children’s Lung Foundation Professor of Pediatrics at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital and Case Western Reserve University.  He received his BA and MD from the University of Virginia.  He did his Pediatric training at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD.  He served in the Navy aboard the USS Iwo Jima and at the Marine Corps base, Camp Lejeune, NC.  He did his fellowship training in Pediatric Pulmonology at Boston Children’s Hospital. 

 

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Elliot Israel,MD Brigham and Women's

Dr. Elliot Israel is the Gloria and Anthony Simboli Distinguished Professor in Asthma Research and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Director of Clinical Research in the Pulmonary and Critical Care Division at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.  He directs the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Severe Asthma Program. He received his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  He then completed residency programs in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital (formerly New York Hospital). 

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Anastasia Ivanova,PhD Data, Modeling, and Coordination Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Dr. Ivanova is a Professor at the department of Biostatistics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has been at UNC since 1999 working on clinical trials in oncology, gastroenterology and psychiatry. Dr Ivanova's areas of research include adaptive designs and design for clinical trials with enrichment. 

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Sonia Jain,PhD University of California San Diego

Sonia Jain, Ph.D. is a Professor of Biostatistics in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego.  Dr. Jain completed her PhD in Statistics from the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada.  Dr. Jain has more than sixteen years of experience in the design and analysis of clinical and behavioral studies, including studies in pulmonary medicine and infectious diseases. Dr. Jain has served or is currently serving as the Director of Biostatistics or Core Biostatistics Leader for a number of large projects, including several clinical trial networks.

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Nizar Jarjour,MD University of Wisconsin

Nizar Jarjour, MD, joined the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in 1986, first as a pulmonary and critical care fellow, and later a pulmonary research fellow at UW Hospitals and Clinic. He became professor of medicine and head of the allergy, pulmonary and critical care division of the Department of Medicine in 2004.  Dr. Jarjour earned his medical degree from Damascus University School of Medicine in Damascus, Syria, where he graduated with highest academic honors. He completed an internship at Damascus University Hospitals and St. Quentin General Hospital in St. Quentin, France. He completed an internal medicine residency at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, before making his way to UW Health.

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Monica Kraft,MD ,PhD Arizona/ Wake Forest

Dr. Kraft is an internationally renowned physician-scientist who specializes in translational asthma research is the Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson, as well as a Professor of Medicine and The Robert and Irene Flinn Endowed Chair in Medicine. Prior to joining the University of Arizona, she was a Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of the Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, and Director of the Duke Asthma, Allergy and Airway Center at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C. Dr. Kraft earned her medical degree at the University of California, San Francisco. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center where she was also Chief Resident. Her fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine was completed at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, where afterward she joined the faculty as Director of the Carl and Hazel Felt Laboratory for Adult Asthma Research and Medical Director of the Pulmonary Physiology Unit at National Jewish Medical and Research Center (1995-2004). She was then recruited to Duke University in 2004 to create and direct the Duke Asthma, Allergy and Airway Center. 

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Jerry Krishnan,MD ,PhD The University of Illinois at Chicago

Dr. Krishnan is Professor of Medicine and Public Health, and Associate Vice Chancellor for Population Health Sciences at the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System, in Chicago, IL.  He received his M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine, then completed a fellowship in Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine at Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. in Clinical Investigation at the Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  Dr. Krishnan is an expert in care delivery science in asthma and COPD, including real-world pragmatic clinical trials. He previously served as the Chair of the US FDA Pulmonary Allergy Drugs Advisory Committee and the NHLBI Clinical Trials study section. He directs the Breathe Chicago Center, which conducts National Institutes of Health, Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and American Lung Association-funded clinical trials and cohort studies.   Dr. Krishnan co-directs the Institute for Healthcare Delivery Design, which is integrating the methods of human-centered design in healthcare operations and research. He is a member of several national and international committees, including the NIH/NHLBI EPR-4 asthma guidelines, the Global Initiative in Asthma (GINA), the ATS guidelines in COPD, and the ATS guidelines for the use of long-term oxygen therapy.   

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Lisa LaVange,PhD Data, Modeling, and Coordination Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Lisa LaVange, PhD, is Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Biostatistics in the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  She is also director of the department’s Collaborative Studies Coordinating Center (CSCC), overseeing faculty, staff, and students involved in large-scale clinical trials and epidemiological studies coordinated by the center.  Currently, she is Coordinating Center Principal Investigator (PI) for the NICHD-sponsored Adolescent Medicine Trials in HIV/AIDS Interventions Network and of the NHLBI-sponsored Precision Medicine Interventions in Severe and/or Exacerbation Prone Asthma Network (PrecISE).  From 2011 to 2017, Dr. LaVange was director of the Office of Biostatistics in the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER).

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Stanley Szefler,MD University of Colorado

Dr. Szefler’s major contributions are directed toward the individualized use of asthma therapy.  He has identified biomarkers and asthma characteristics that are associated with asthma exacerbations and response to asthma therapy. He is currently the Research Medical Director and Director of the Pediatric Asthma Research Program in the Breathing Institute of the Pediatric Pulmonary Section at Children’s Hospital Colorado. He is also Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. 

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W. Gerald Teague,MD Cleveland/UVA

Dr. Teague went to Georgia State University and then to the Medical College of Georgia. He came to the University of Virginia in 1978 as a pediatrics resident, and then was Chief Resident.  He specialized in pediatric respiratory medicine in 1982, a primary focus for the past 36 years.  Dr. Teague completed fellowships in both Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine and Neonatology in the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco. In 1986 he returned to UVA, as the first pediatric pulmonologist in the Department.  In 1992 Dr. Teague went to Emory University as Division Director and began to study severe asthma.  He has been a leader in the NIH/NHLBI Severe Asthma Research program since 1999.  In 2006 he was promoted to Professor of Pediatrics at Emory University, and then returned to UVA in 2009.

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Pandurangan Vijayanand,MD ,PhD University of California San Diego

Pandurangan "Vijay" Vijayanand, M.D. Ph.D. is Scientific Director of the Center for Asthma Prevention and Treatment and is the William K. Bowes Distinguished Professor at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology. While his main focus is fundamental research within the lab, he also maintains clinical operations and sees patients regularly. Vijay has established large funded projects with the National Institutes of Health to study asthma as well as a project to map “normal” human immune cells that will ultimately help us understand epigenetic variations. He is passionate about solving asthma and bringing that solution to the public.

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Michael E. Wechsler,MD MMSc National Jewish / Colorado Children's

Michael E. Wechsler is Director of the National Jewish Health (NJH)/Cohen Family Asthma Institute and Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at NJH in Denver. He is a member of the Steering Committee and site Principal Investigator of the NIH-sponsored Asthma Clinical Research Network (ACRN, now called AsthmaNet), a multicentre asthma clinical trials consortium, and of the Precision Intervention in Severe/Exacerbating Asthma (PRECISE) network. Dr. Wechsler received AB and MMSc degrees from Harvard University in Boston and an MD degree from McGill University in Montreal. He completed medical training at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, and as part of the Harvard Combined Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship Training Program.

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Sally E. Wenzel,MD Pittsburgh/ Johns Hopkins

Dr. Sally Wenzel completed her MD degree at the University of Florida.  Following her residency in internal medicine at Wake Forest University and her fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, she spent 19 years at National Jewish and the University of Colorado before moving to the University of Pittsburgh.  She is currently Director of the University of Pittsburgh Asthma Institute at UPMC, and Chair for the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, at the Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh. 

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Steve White,MD The University of Chicago

Dr. Steve White received his medical degree from the University of Illinois and completed his residency in internal medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University. His main area of expertise is asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. Dr. White is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago and treats patients at the University of Chicago Asthma and COPD Center. Dr. White is a member of the PrecISE Steering Committee.

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