Rutgers researchers have discovered that people with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease have a protein in their lungs that leaks a small molecule into their bloodstream that restricts their breathing instead of relaxing their airways. The findings, published in the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, will help clinicians diagnose and determine the severity of chronic lung diseases and make bronchodilators more effective. In the United States, 25 million people suffer with asthma and another 14 million with COPD. “This protein has been recognized as important in some diseases, but it has never been defined before in airway diseases, such as asthma and COPD, until now,” said co-author Reynold Panettieri, vice chancellor of translational medicine at Rutgers. To read the full story.