Vermont Lung Center

Professor and Chair of Medicine Anne Dixon, M.A., B.M.B.Ch., was invested as the E. L. Amidon, M.D.’32, Chair of the Department of Medicine on March 29. A UVM faculty member since 2001, Dr. Dixon is chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine and director of the Vermont Lung Center. She served as interim chair of medicine from fall 2022 until her appointment as permanent chair in fall 2023.

Research by Yvonne Janssen-Heininger, Ph.D., and Reem Aboushousha, Ph.D, uncovered a novel facet of glutaredoxin, a prominent player in humans’ antioxidant defense system . The findings bear substantial implications in the field of cancer biology.

Anne Dixon, M.A, B.M.B.Ch., Professor of Medicine, has been appointed Chair of the Department of Medicine in the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont.

(SEPTEMBER 1, 2023) A poster presentation by Daniel Weiss, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine, was awarded third place at the 2023 Military Health System Research Symposium in Florida on August 17, the Defense Health Agency reported.

(AUGUST 7, 2023) Pulmonologist David Kaminsky, M.D., professor of medicine, says it’s probably best to avoid breathing in polluted air during the cleanup following July’s record-setting flooding, according to WCAX-TV.

(JULY 12, 2023) Lung specialist Anne Dixon, M.A., B.M.B.Ch., professor of medicine, spoke with healthywomen.org about a demonstrated association between obesity and a higher risk of severe COVID-19.

On May 17, 2023, the University of Vermont’s Vermont Lung Center and the American Lung Association announced Vermont’s participation as one of 35 sites across the country conducting a first-of-its-kind large-scale study of millennial lung health - the Lung Health Cohort Study.

(MAY 17, 2023) NBC5 featured pulmonologist Anne Dixon, M.A., B.M.B.Ch., professor of medicine, in a story about recruiting millennials for a long-term nationwide Lung Health Cohort Study. The pioneering study will follow 4,000 young, healthy adults to paint a clearer picture of lung health and the factors involved in predicting and preventing lung disease.

(APRIL 30, 2023) According to Medical Dialogues, a new study by pulmonologist Anne Dixon, B.M.B.Ch., professor and interim chair of medicine, and colleagues has found that people with asthma and obesity have significant dysfunction in the distal airways at baseline that worsens with methacholine.

A new study in the American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology by Albert van der Vliet, Ph.D., professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, and colleagues is honing in on why people with asthma often have worse symptoms if they are obese.

(APRIL 17, 2023) A study by Professor of Medicine Anne Dixon, B.M.B.Ch., and colleagues found that using oscillometry testing may allow physicians to identify patients with asthma and obesity who have a phenotype that may be related to worse symptoms and more severe disease, Healio.com reported.

(MARCH 21, 2023) Pediatric pulmonologist L. E. Faricy, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics, supports banning the retail sale of all flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes, according to VTDigger.

(FEBRUARY 9, 2023) Anne Dixon, M.A., B.M.B.Ch., professor of medicine, commented to The (Lowell, Massachusetts) Sun about a new study led by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health that found that a healthy lifestyle could lower the risk of long COVID.

(JANUARY 18, 2023) Kelly Cowan, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics and a pediatric pulmonologist at the UVM Children’s Hospital, spoke with WCAX-TV about a new study that concluded that more than 12.5 percent of current childhood asthma in the U.S. is due to gas stove use.

(JANUARY 18, 2023) David Kaminsky, M.D., professor of medicine, a pulmonologist and critical care physician who routinely sees patients with long COVID symptoms, was quoted in a Seven Days story about the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) for patients suffering from so-called long COVID.

(DECEMBER 24, 2022) The Green Mountain Mahler Festival, founded in 2002 by pulmonologist Daniel Weiss, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine, continued what has become an annual New Year’s tradition with a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on January 1 at the Elley-Long Music Center in Colchester, the Barre–Montpelier Times Argus reported.

(NOVEMBER 15, 2022) In a USA Today article on a new study suggesting that smoking marijuana may do more damage to lungs than cigarettes, pulmonary and critical care physician David Kaminsky, M.D., professor of medicine (who is unaffiliated with the study), commented, “It’s no surprise to me. A burning leaf is a burning leaf ... the lung doesn’t know the difference if it’s tobacco or marijuana.”

(NOVEMBER 3, 2022) David Kaminsky, M.D., professor of medicine, spoke to The Other Paper’s Corey McDonald about so-called long COVID, following the death in May of a childhood friend of his own son who, after four months of increasingly debilitating symptoms that forced him to obtain a medical leave from his job, took his own life.

(NOVEMBER 2022) Researchers led by pulmonologist and critical care physician Renee Stapleton, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine, concluded that “informed assent” for CPR is a “feasible and reasonable” approach for some hospitalized patients, according to Medical Ethics Advisor.

While oxygen is critical for the chemical reactions our cells need to survive, some oxygen reactions occur at the wrong locations or in the wrong proteins, which can cause damage leading to illness and death. The Yvonne Janssen-Heininger lab team has discovered new tools for determining oxidation targets, designing precise small molecules to treat lung fibrosis and cancer.