C. Corey Hardin, MD, PhD

Associate Director, Cardiopulmonary Exercise Laboratory

Associate Professor of Medicine

Academic Interests
In my lab, we take a physical approach to understanding critical illness. We have a particular focus on the endothelial cells of the pulmonary and systemic capillaries which are subject to a wide variety of mechanical stimuli. These include stretch from cyclic lung inflation and blood flow across the luminal surface as well as cell generated forces arising from cytoskeletal contraction. Cell-cell junctions provide mechanical linkages between individual endothelial cells so that the endothelial layer behaves in some sense as a single cohesive material. We have discovered striking similarities between the mechanical behavior of this material and that of a class of materials known in soft matter physics as amorphous solids. These behaviors include stiffness that may vary with degree of cell alignment and time-dependent mechanical responses. Ultimately, we wish to understand how the complicated physical properties of these cells and tissues interact with inflammatory mediators and cell signaling cascades in an effort to better understand and treat ICU patients. In our work, we employ a wide variety of imaging and cell culture techniques including live-cell fluorescence microscopy, force microscopy and microfluidics. I also work in the cardiopulmonary exercise lab at MGH and an additional focus of my work is understanding the determinants of exercise limitation in pulmonary disease.