A study of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) designed to guide future development of therapies for COPD by 1) providing robust criteria for sub-classifying COPD participants into groups most likely to benefit from a given therapy during a clinical trial, thereby improving the chances of successful outcome; and 2) identifying biomarkers/phenotypes that can be used as intermediate outcomes to reliably predict clinical benefit during therapeutic trials, thus reducing costs. The goal is to enroll 3,200 participants in four strata: severe COPD, mild/moderate COPD, smokers without COPD, and non-smoking controls. Participants undergo a baseline visit, including morphometric measures, spirometry, six-minute walk, chest CT, and a set of standardized questionnaires. Biospecimens, including plasma, serum, DNA, urine, and induced sputum, are collected and stored. There are three annual follow-up examinations, with quarterly telephone calls to assess for exacerbations, and mortality will be undertaken. SPIROMICS is designed so that sub-studies and ancillary studies testing additional hypotheses can be added.

The world's most comprehensive study of patients with severe asthma. SARP is designed to look for the underlying causes of severe asthma and improve its treatment. CT scans are performed to study the narrowing of airways and air trappings within asthmatics. "The overall aim is to enable prediction of phenotype stability / fluctuation and pharmacological response, and to identify novel, disease-modifying targets for treatment. This longitudinal mechanistic research approach will provide an integrated understanding of the fixed and variable molecular, cellular, and pathophysiologic underpinnings of severe asthma sub-phenotypes" NIH government grants