During tonight’s State of the Union address, President Obama is expected to talk about precision medicine, using cystic fibrosis as the example.

American Thoracic Society president Thomas Ferkol, MD, a cystic fibrosis expert, is available to comment on the disease, its pathophysiology, and treatments, including emerging small molecule therapies.

Dr. Ferkol graduated from Case Western Reserve University in 1981, and he received his M.D. degree from the Ohio State University College of Medicine in 1985. He is currently Director of the Division of Pediatric Allergy, Immunology, and Pulmonary Medicine at the Washington University School of Medicine. He is the past director of the comprehensive Washington University Cystic Fibrosis Center, and directs premier clinical and research programs in cystic fibrosis.

An American Lung Association Edward Livingston Trudeau Scholar and recipient of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) LeRoy Matthew’s Physician-Scientist Award, his research has focused on characterizing genetic and molecular factors that contribute to lung disease in cystic fibrosis and primary ciliary dyskinesia. With past and continued support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), CFF, and March of Dimes, Dr. Ferkol and his collaborators are studying the origins and potential therapeutic targets for these inherited airway diseases. He is an investigator for the NIH-supported Genetic Diseases of Mucociliary Clearance Consortium, and has assembled clinical, biomedical, and engineering research collaborative at Washington University, studying the genetic and phenotypic spectrum of ciliopathies. He is also co-principal investigator on a NIH-funded program that is examining adverse respiratory outcomes in children with chronic lung disease related to prematurity.

Dr. Ferkol can be reached at [email protected].