Stanford School of Medicine
Profile http://med.stanford.edu/profiles/Richard_Bland/ Email this pagePrinter friendly version

Key Documents

Richard Bland

Contact Information

  • Clinical Offices
    Neonatal Intensive Care Unit 725 Welch Rd 2 West Palo Alto, CA 94304
    Telephone Work (650) 497-8800 Fax
  • Academic Offices
    Personal Information
    Email rbland@stanford.edu
    Administrative Contact
    Michelle Fox Administrative Associate Tel Work 723-8080
    Not for medical emergencies or patient use

Clinical Focus

  • Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine

Honors and Awards

  • Ogden C Bruton Award, Uniformed Services (1972, 1973)
  • Established Investigator, American Heart Association (1979-1984)
  • Distinguished Alumnus Award, Boston University School of Medicine (1996)
  • Honorary Doctor of Medicine, University of Uppsala, Sweden (2004)

Professional Education

  • Board Certification: Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, American Board of Pediatrics (1975)
  • UCSF Medical Center (1975) CA
  • Board Certification: General Pediatrics, American Board of Pediatrics (1971)
  • Johns Hopkins University (1969) MD
  • Johns Hopkins University (1967) MD
  • Boston University School Of Medicine (1966) MA
  • BA, Yale University Social Sciences (1962)
  • MD, Boston University Medicine (1966)

Postdoctoral Advisees

Research Interests

Our research program focuses on lung growth and development, and the adverse impact of prolonged mechanical ventilation on the incompletely formed lung, which in very premature infants often leads to a life-threatening condition that was first described as bronchopulmonary dysplasia (Northway WH Jr et al, Stanford University, New Engl J Med 276: 357-368, 1967). This form of neonatal chronic lung disease is the leading cause of long-term hospitalization and recurrent respiratory disorders seen in tiny infants who have been born at less than 28 weeks of gestation. Failed alveolar formation and excess, disordered lung elastin are prominent histological features of this disease, which in some ways resembles adult emphysema. We study the effects of mechanical ventilation, with either air or 40% O2, on genes and proteins that regulate lung growth and development in newborn mice, whose alveoli and pulmonary capillaries form mainly after birth at term gestation. As elastin plays a crucial role in lung growth and development (elastin-null mice die soon after birth from cardiorespiratory failure related to defective alveolar and lung vascular formation), we are especially interested in studying the effects of prolonged mechanical ventilation (cyclic lung stretch) with O2-rich gas (which is often needed to sustain life of extremely premature infants) on genes that regulate elastin synthesis and assembly, which in turn can affect lung septation and angiogenesis. We currently study the effects of lengthy mechanical ventilation on lungs of mutant newborn mice that have defects in elastin assembly and associated abnormalities of lung structure. Because mechanical ventilation of the developing lung can induce the release of proteolytic enzymes that break down elastin, we recently began to study the effects of mechanical ventilation with O2-rich gas in a transgenic mouse that over-expresses elafin, a potent inhibitor of serine elastase activity. We think that these studies will pave the way for novel and effective strategies to treat or prevent neonatal chronic lung disease, and perhaps other respiratory disorders that exhibit similar pathological features in older children and adults.

Publications