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Robert Matthew Tighe

Associate Professor of Medicine
Medicine, Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine
Duke Box 2629, Durham, NC 27710
Duke Pulmonary- Medical Resear, 203 Research Drive, Durham, NC 27710

Research Interests


1) Mechanisms of Lung Susceptibility to Air Pollution
2) Lung macrophage and epithelial crosstalk in acute lung injury
3) Hyperpolarized 129 Xenon MRI for use in prognostic and therapeutic assessment of Interstitial Lung Disease
4) Interstitial Lung Disease Epidemiology in the Veterans Affairs Health System
5) Engineered nanomaterials and protein corona formation with airway lining fluid

Selected Grants


Duke University Program in Environmental Health

Inst. Training Prgm or CMEMentor · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2019 - 2029

Early Detection of Changes in Pulmonary Gas Exchange by Hyperpolarized Xe MRI

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute · 2011 - 2027

Monocyte-derived alveolar macrophage drives inflammatory response to lung ozone exposure

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences · 2022 - 2027

Mongolian Center for Environmental & Occupational Health - U.S. Subaward

Inst. Training Prgm or CMECo Investigator · Awarded by University of Texas Medical Branch · 2022 - 2027

Red blood cell ATP export and transfusion in sepsis (R01)

ResearchCollaborator · Awarded by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute · 2023 - 2026

Duke Program of Training in Pulmonary ReSearch to Promote, Engage and Retain Academic Researchers (PROSPER)

Inst. Training Prgm or CMEPreceptor · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2022 - 2026

Genentech Xenon MRI IPF Study

Clinical TrialPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Genentech, Inc. · 2019 - 2026

Using MRI To Visualize Regional Therapy Response In Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute · 2015 - 2025

R01: CXCL10/CXCR3 regulation of ozone-induced epithelial permeability

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2017 - 2023

Gene-Environment Collaboration in Autoimmune Disease

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2017 - 2023

Pulmonary response to nanomaterial-ozone exposures

ResearchCo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2020 - 2023

Interdisciplinary Training Program in Lung Disease

Inst. Training Prgm or CMEPreceptor · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2009 - 2021

Novel role for CD163 in ozone induced alterations of pulmonary immunity

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by East Carolina University · 2019 - 2020

Dual humanization to model gene-environment interactions in ANCA vasculitis

ResearchCollaborator · Awarded by Vasculitis Foundation · 2017 - 2018

Regulation of Lung Fibrosis by Alternatively Activated Macrophages and Arginase-1

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2012 - 2017

Mechanism of Silica-induced Autoimmunity

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2014 - 2017

Diesel-induced Alterations of Influenza Infectivity

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill · 2015 - 2017

External Relationships


  • Boehringer Ingleheim
  • Procter & Gamble Company

This faculty member (or a member of their immediate family) has reported outside activities with the companies, institutions, or organizations listed above. This information is available to institutional leadership and, when appropriate, management plans are in place to address potential conflicts of interest.