The Kropski lab at Vanderbilt investigates the mechanisms of lung injury, repair and fibrosis with a focus on disease initiation and propagation with a goal of developing strategies for early diagnosis and novel therapeutic strategies to prevent progression of these diseases. We utilize a multifaceted approach including studying families with interstitial lung disease to identify genes and mechanisms that drive disease risk, single-cell and genomic technologies using cells and tissues from patients with interstitial lung disease, innovative cell culture and transgenic animal models to advance understanding of the pathogenesis of interstitial lung diseases.