Journal of Allergy & Therapy

Steven D. Shapiro

Biography

Steven D. Shapiro executive vice president and chief medical and scientific officer of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and president of its Health Services Division, has been named to the newly created position of senior vice president for health affairs at USC, President Carol L. Folt announced Thursday. He will report to the president and begin his new role on May 15.In his new post, Shapiro will directly oversee Keck Medicine of USC and the Keck School of Medicine of USC with oversight of associated research programs. 

Research Interest

 Shapiro’s laboratory focuses on the role of inflammatory cell derived proteinases in the progression of COPD/emphysema and lung cancer.  He originally cloned and knocked-out macrophage elastase (MMP-12) to demonstrate that MMP-12 deficient mice are completely protected from the development of cigarette smoke-induced emphysema.  Dr. Shapiro’s lab has continued to study the contribution of numerous inflammatory cell derived proteinases in emphysema and lung cancer progression using gene targeting in mice.  More recently, his lab has begun to study the role of repair (or lack thereof) in the progression of emphysema by using lineage-tagging approaches to study putative stem cell populations residing within the lung.