Ask the Expert Answers
Q&A: Dr. Toby Maher, MD, MSc, PhD, FRCP
Dr. Maher is the Professor of Medicine and Director of Interstitial Lung Disease at the Keck School of Medicine of USC University of Southern California Dr. Maher has spent over 20 years specialising in the management of interstitial lung disease. Since June 2020 he has been Director of ILD at Keck Medicine of University of Southern California. He previously ran the ILD unit at Royal Brompton Hospital, London and was a Professor of ILD at Imperial College, London. His research interests...
Q&A: Naftali Kaminski, MD
Dr. Kaminski is the the Boehringer-Ingelheim Endowed Professor of Internal Medicine and Chief of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, at Yale School of Medicine The following questions were submitted from Three Lakes 12-20 subscribers and followers as a part of our Ask the Expert series, where we provide a forum to industry professionals to widen access and education from those who are actively working towards the treatment and future of pulmonary fibrosis. The existing approved drugs...
Q&A: Dr. Anna Podolanczuk, MD
Dr. Podolanczuk is the Co-Director of the Weill Cornell Interstitial Lung Disease Program The following questions were submitted from Three Lakes 12-20 subscribers and followers as a part of our Ask the Expert series, where we provide a forum to industry professionals to widen access and education from those who are actively working towards the treatment and future of pulmonary fibrosis. The existing drugs are antifibrotics, and slow disease but do not stop progression. In terms of stopping...
Q&A: Dr. Andy Limper, MD
Dr. Limper is the Head of the Thoracic Research Unit at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The following questions were submitted from Three Lakes 12-20 subscribers and followers as a part of our Ask the Expert series , where we provide a forum to industry professionals to widen access and education from those who are actively working towards the treatment and future of pulmonary fibrosis. How does sleep apnea affect PF? Patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis have a variety of...
Meet Our Expert
Dr. Christine Kim Garcia, MD, PhD
Christine Kim Garcia, MD, PhD, is the Frode Jensen Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. Her laboratory investigates the genetic basis of adult lung disease, with a particular focus on pulmonary fibrosis. Her group has identified rare pathogenic variants in genes involved in telomere biology, surfactant homeostasis, and mitotic spindle pathways.
Dr. Garcia received her MD and PhD from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where she also completed her residency in internal medicine and fellowship training in pulmonary and critical care medicine. In 2018, she joined the Department of Medicine at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, she was appointed Chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, and in 2023, she was named Director of the Columbia Precision Medicine Initiative.
Dr. Garcia has received numerous honors and awards, including election to the Association of American Physicians (2026), Columbia’s Irene and Arthur Fishberg Prize (2022), American Society for Clinical Investigation (2012), Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Clinical Scientist Development Award (2008), Charles E. Culpeper Foundation Medical Scholar Award (2004), Parker B. Francis Fellowship Award in Pulmonary Research (2003), and Alpha Omega Alpha (1991). She currently co-chairs the NIH Clinical Genome Resource (ClinGen) Pulmonary Domain Executive Committee and the Interstitial Lung Disease Gene Curation Expert Panel.
We will accept submissions for Ask the Expert with Dr. Garcia through July 17th, 2026.
Answers will be published here on our website, so check back and stay subscribed to our email newsletter to stay updated!
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Ask the Expert
Advancing our mission means involving the scientific and industry professionals who are closest to the patients, research, and development opportunities.
In our Ask the Expert series, we will provide a form to submit questions to an identified Expert related to pulmonary fibrosis. Each month, we will introduce a new Expert.
Submit your questions, subscribe to our email list, and stay in touch to hear answers directly from our Expert!