In this episode of “At the Bench”, we are interviewing one of our show’s co-hosts, Dr. David McCulley. David is a neonatologist and developmental biologist at the University of California, San Diego and in this show he talks about what motivated him to build a research program investigating the genetic and developmental mechanisms responsible for congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). David directs an NIH-supported study to determine the genetic mechanisms responsible for abnormal lung and pulmonary vascular development in patients with CDH. He describes the mentorship and collaborative research experiences that have shaped his career path. David also talks about the work that he is doing along with the Society for Pediatric Research and the co-hosts of this program, Dr. Misty Good and Dr. Betsy Crouch, to encourage and promote pediatric physician-scientist career development. Some highlighted papers: Stokes, G., Li, Z., Talaba, N., Genthe, W., Brix, M.B., Pham, B., Wienhold, M.D., Sandok, G., Hernan, R., Wynn, J., Tang, H., Tabima, D.M., Rodgers, A., Hacker, T.A., Chesler, N.C., Zhang, P., Murad, R., Yuan, J.X., Shen, Y., Chung, W.K., McCulley, D.J. Rescuing lung development through embryonic inhibition of histone acetylation. Science Translational Medicine. 2024 Jan 31;16(732). Epub 2024 Jan 31. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38295182/Qiao, L., Wynn, J., Yu, L., Hernan, R., Zhou, X., Duron, V., Aspelund, G., Farkouh-Karoleski, C., Zygumunt, A., Krishnan, U.S., Nees, S., Khlevner, J., Lim, F.Y., Crombleholme, T., Cusick, R., Azarow, K., Danko, M.E., Chung, D., Warner, B.W., Mychaliska, G.B., Potoka, D., Wagner, A.J., Soffer, S., Schindel, D., McCulley, D.J., Shen, Y., Chung, W.K. Likely damaging de novo variants in congenital diaphragmatic hernia patients are associated with worse clinical outcomes. Genetics in Medicine. 2020 Dec;22(12):2020-2028. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32719394/McCulley, D.J., Wienhold, M.D., Hines, E.A., Hacker, T.A., Rogers, A., Pewowaruk, R.J., Zewdu, R. Chesler, N.C., Selleri, L., Sun, X. PBX transcription factors drive pulmonary vascular adaptation to birth. Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2018 Feb 1;128(2):655-667. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29251627/Kardon, G., Ackerman, K., McCulley, D.J., Shen, Y., Wynn, J., Shang, L., Bogenschutz, E.L., Sun, X., Chung, W.K. Congenital diaphragmatic hernias: from genes to mechanisms to therapies. Disease Models & Mechanisms. 2017 Aug 1;10(8):955-970. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28768736/McCulley, D., Wienhold, M.D., Sun, X. “The pulmonary mesenchyme directs lung development.” Current Opinion in Genetics & Development. 2015 Jun;32:98-105. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25796078/As always, feel free to send us questions, comments, or suggestions to our email: nicupodcast@gmail.com. You can also contact the show through Instagram or Twitter, @nicupodcast. Or contact Ben and Daphna directly via their Twitter profiles: @drnicu and @doctordaphnamd. The papers discussed in today's episode are listed and timestamped on the webpage linked below. Enjoy!