Senior Investigator and Group Leader, Respiratory Biology, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research
Biography
David J. Rowlands, Ph.D is a Senior Investigator and group leader within the Respiratory Diseases Area at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR). Before joining NIBR, David was a postdoctoral research at Columbia University, New York City focused on elucidating novel mechanisms responsible for regulating severity of lung inflammation following injury. Throughout his career, David has utilized a multi-disciplinary approach to address scientific questions with a strong focus on utility of in vivo pharmacology and translational ex vivo and in vitro model systems to replicate physiological process. Over the last 8 years at NIBR, David and his team have enabled and supported multiple drug discovery programs spanning diseases including COPD, cystic fibrosis, pulmonary arterial hypertension and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis at all stages of the drug discovery pipeline from target validation through to support of a PhII clinical trial. Although in vivo pharmacology remains a key focus of David's group, over the last few years, his team have increasingly incorporated alternative systems to address complex scientific questions including use of ex vivo tissue preparations such as the isolated perfused lung or ex vivo tracheal tissue to a more recent consideration of microfluidic 'organ on a chip' technology.
