Skip to main content
NACFC 2024 Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Presentation Icons
Livestreamed Session
Livestreamed Session
Ticketed Session
Ticketed Session
Recorded Session
Recorded Session
Back

Craig Hodges, PhD

CWRU

Dr. Craig Hodges received his Ph.D. in Genetics from Case Western Reserve University in 2002 and joined the faculty of the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences and the Department of Pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University in 2009. Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a systemic disease affecting many parts of the body including pulmonary, gastrointestinal, pancreatic, immune, endocrine and reproductive systems. With this in mind, my lab is interested in determining the extent to which specific cell types contribute to CF disease characteristics, whether the pathophysiology can be halted or reversed by CFTR functional correction and understanding the molecular mechanisms behind the physiological consequences of CFTR’s absence. We are beginning to address these issues through the use of traditional CF mouse models as well as conditional CF mouse models that allow for the conditional inactivation or restoration of Cftr function in specific tissues, cell types as well as at specific developmental timepoints. My laboratory is particularly interested in how the loss of CFTR leads to the intestinal dysfunction and reduced growth phenotypes associated with CF. We have found that these two phenotypes seem to be independent of each other in the CF mouse and we are investigating this further utilizing our CF models.

Additionally, my lab has focused on creating tools and testing therapies for CFTR nonsense mutations. While 90% of people with CF(PwCF) are eligible to use a FDA approved CFTR modulator, PwCF carrying CFTR nonsense mutations and other ineligible mutations still need new therapies.

I am also director of the CFF funded Cystic Fibrosis Mouse Resource Center (CFMRC). The overall goal of the CFMRC is to develop, characterize, distribute and assist in the experimental use of mouse models by the CF research community for understanding the pathophysiology of the disease and for development of therapies. The CFMRC serves a unique service to the CF research community as it is the largest creator and distributor of CF and CF-related mouse models in the world. The CFMRC maintains over 50 different CF mouse strains at any one time. The production and phenotyping of these various CF mouse strains has allowed us to distribute them to 206 investigators at 74 universities and 30 companies in 30 states in the USA as well as 13 countries in the past 5 years.

Presentation(s):