Ben Kopp, MD

Ben Kopp, MD, joined Emory University and Children’s as an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Co-Director of CF-AIR, and Director of the Pulmonary Sickle Cell Program in August 2022. His research in cystic fibrosis (CF) started in 2006 and he’s been conducting sickle cell research over the last 5 to 10 years. Dr. Kopp’s interest in research sparked when he was volunteering in medical school. He spent time in the CF unit at a local children’s hospital where he interacted with terminally ill teenagers with CF. As a resident, he was involved with basic and translational research and wanted to improve his patients’ care.

Dr. Kopp’s current research is centered on environmental host-pathogen interactions that impact chronic respiratory diseases such as CF and lung disease related to sickle cell. He studies how our immune system is regulated by the microbes and toxicants it encounters in the environment. To understand how our immune system is altered, Dr. Kopp studies kids with CF and sickle cell to contrast their unique backgrounds. Using basic science, Dr. Kopp and his team focus on pathways that may be targets for personalized immune based therapeutic approaches. They try to understand how a dysregulated immune system can be harnessed and how modifiable environmental factors are influencing chronic disease. An example is studying how e-cigarette exposure reduces therapeutic efficacy in young children with CF.

Currently, Dr. Kopp is involved in multiple studies. In CF, he is examining how new disease-altering medications fail to improve immune responses. Dr. Kopp hopes to develop new therapies that can augment immune function and be widely available to all people with CF, regardless of their genetic background.  In sickle cell, Dr. Kopp is starting a longitudinal study to look at how an individual’s collective environmental exposures (exposome) and microbes (microbiome) influence their chronic lung disease progression. To collect data for his research, Dr. Kopp and his team use a mixture of blood, airway samples, bacterial isolates, and bioinformatics.

Dr. Kopp’s top goals for his research are to move these diseases into more personalized medicine approaches through understanding the cellular makeup of individuals that leads to persistent inflammation. In sickle cell, there are limited ways to prevent lung disease and there is a strong need for new therapeutic developments. In contrast, in CF there are widely available therapies, but none target inflammation effectively, and many are not widely available on a global context.  

Both diseases can shorten life spans, so Dr. Kopp hopes to improve health equity, lung function, life span, and reduce hospitalization stays.

Finally, Dr. Kopp is kicking off pilot studies with investigator-led biopharma companies to test small molecules that can help target exaggerated inflammation in CF. He also hopes to learn more about emerging aspects of thromboinflammation in lung disease.