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

Martina Gentzsch, PhD (she/her/hers)

University of North Carolina

Martina Gentzsch, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Pulmonology), Adjunct Associate Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology, and member of the Marsico Lung Institute at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The major goal of Dr. Gentzsch’s studies is to restore CFTR function in cystic fibrosis (CF). Her research contributed to the understanding of intracellular trafficking, processing, function, mechanisms of CFTR therapeutics, and the development of translational CF models. Dr. Gentzsch received her Ph.D. from the University of Regensburg, Germany in 1997. Early in her career, she conducted crucial studies on CFTR misfolding at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale. Since 2005, she established novel techniques to evaluate rescue of CFTR function by small-molecule compounds in primary human airway epithelial cultures at UNC. Dr. Gentzsch directs the CFRTCC Molecular/Functional Measurement Core, which supports the translation of therapeutic strategies for CF from basic research to clinical studies, and the CFF RDP CFTR Functional Analysis Core, which utilizes electrophysiological, biochemical, cell- and organoid-based assays to characterize ion channel activity and rescue of CFTR function in human bronchial, nasal, and intestinal epithelial cultures.
Currently, Dr. Gentzsch is investigating the following: 1) Mechanistic aspects underlying the mode of action of novel CFTR therapeutics, 2) Pharmacological approaches to rescue rare CFTR mutations, 3) Mechanistic details on how the lung environment (bacterial infection, inflammation) affects ion channel function and CFTR rescue, 4) Consequences of CFTR rescue on fluid transfer and mucociliary clearance in CF airways, 5) pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of CF therapeutics.

Presentation(s):