My research focuses on the underlying altered mechanisms that are operative in subjects with cystic fibrosis that result in defective craniofacial sinus development. I completed otolaryngology clinical training at the University of Iowa. After residency, I received a T32 NIH award. This was an exciting time as the CF center at Iowa had developed the CF knockout pig, the first animal model to develop CF airway disease. During this year I focused my research on the craniofacial phenotype of the CF pig. With my preliminary data, I received institutional funding for a KL2 grant and began my career as a surgeon-scientist in the Department of Otolaryngology. I formed a collaboration with Dr. Michael Paine, an NIDCR-funded craniofacial scientist at USC. We wrote two manuscripts describing the role of CFTR in enamel development in the CF pig. I was successful in applying for a K08 award in 2011 through the NIDCR to investigate the craniofacial sinus phenotype in the CF pig. Our group was the first to discover that newborn CF pigs had craniofacial sinus abnormalities and older CF pigs spontaneously developed CF sinusitis.We have highlighted possibilities of gene transfer in the CF pig as a mode of correction in the sinus epithelia. We hope to translate this work to people with CF, and have recently reported on the reversal of CF sinus disease in a human with personal molecular based therapy.