Hilary Faust, MD, MTR | Biomarkers of Injury Mechanisms in Critically Ill Patients
Hilary Faust, MD, MTR, is a critical care physician who conducts research on acute organ dysfunction syndromes in critically ill patients to discover biomarkers of injury mechanisms and biological subphenotypes. She is also the principal investigator for the University of Wisconsin Sepsis Biobank.
Dr. Hilary Faust's Faculty Biography
Identifying Subphenotypes of Acute Illnesses to Facilitate Precision Medicine
Dr. Faust’s specific research interests include the role of damage-associated molecular patterns, such as cell-free nucleic acids in precipitating endothelial dysfunction, and how this mechanism contributes to the pathophysiology of lung and kidney injury.
Her long-term goal is to identify mechanistically-based subphenotypes of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and acute kidney injury (AKI) that may facilitate development of targeted treatments and precision medicine approaches to critically ill patients.
Dr. Faust uses biomarker data and genomics and collaborates with the Circulating Biomarker Core and the Beebe lab to use-cutting edge human cellular translational lung injury models, including “liquid biopsy” of endothelial cells and "lung on a chip” microfluidic models.
Research Team
- Ian Wolf, SMPH student collaborator
Active Projects
- UW Sepsis Biobank
Dr. Faust collects plasma from critically ill sepsis patients for current and future research to better understand organ failure syndromes in this population.
- Role of Mitochondrial DNA in ARDS and Acute Kidney Injury
Using the UW Sepsis Biobank, and other biorepositories of critically ill patients, Dr. Faust investigates how mtDNA causes inflammation and endothelial activation to precipitate lung and kidney injury. This work is funded by the University of Wisconsin Institute for Clinical and Translational Research KL2 Scholars Program.
- ICU Clinical Trials Research
Dr. Faust has ongoing research on the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for critically ill patients. She is also a member of the ICU clinical trials studies group.
Publications
- Faust H, Lam LM, Hotz MJ, Qing D, Mangalmurti NS. RAGE interacts with the necroptotic protein RIPK3 and mediates transfusion-induced danger signal release. Vox Sang. 2020 Nov;115(8):729-734. doi: 10.1111/vox.12946. Epub 2020 Jul 7. PMID: 32633835; PMCID: PMC8215843.
- Faust HE, Reilly JP, Anderson BJ, Ittner CAG, Forker CM, Zhang P, Weaver BA, Holena DN, Lanken PN, Christie JD, Meyer NJ, Mangalmurti NS, Shashaty MGS. Plasma Mitochondrial DNA Levels Are Associated With ARDS in Trauma and Sepsis Patients. Chest. 2020 Jan;157(1):67-76. doi: 10.1016/j.chest.2019.09.028. Epub 2019 Oct 14. PMID: 31622590; PMCID: PMC6965693.
- Faust HE, Golden JA, Rajalingam R, Wang AS, Green G, Hays SR, Kukreja J, Singer JP, Wolters PJ, Greenland JR. Short lung transplant donor telomere length is associated with decreased CLAD-free survival. Thorax. 2017 Nov;72(11):1052-1054. doi: 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2016-209897. Epub 2017 Apr 26. PMID: 28446663; PMCID: PMC6550329.
- Faust HE, Oniyide O, Wang Y, Forker CM, Dunn T, Yang W, Lanken PN, Sims CA, Yehya N, Christie JD, Meyer NJ, Reilly JP, Mangalmurti NS, Shashaty MGS. Early Plasma Nuclear DNA, Mitochondrial DNA, and Nucleosome Concentrations Are Associated With Acute Kidney Injury in Critically Ill Trauma Patients. Crit Care Explor. 2022 Mar 28;4(4):e0663. doi: 10.1097/CCE.0000000000000663. PMID: 35372847; PMCID: PMC8963825.
View Dr. Faust's Publications on NCBI My Bibliography.
Positions Available
Undergraduates, graduate students and technicians interested in laboratory research in Dr. Faust’s lab are encouraged to apply by sending a CV and a brief description of your research experience and interests to hfaust@medicine.wisc.edu.
Funding Support
Dr. Faust is funded by the NIH as a KL2 Scholar through the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR). She has also been awarded an ICTR Critical Experiment Pilot grant (2022).
Make a Gift
Help support our research by making a gift to the Department of Medicine's Pulmonary Research and Education Fund.
