Q&A with Maria Hudock: Cracking the Case on Gene Therapy for Cystic Fibrosis
November 10, 2025Maria Hudock, an MD-PhD student at Columbia University, is researching gene therapy for cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that causes severe lung damage.
Every time Maria Hudock looks through a microscope, she finds herself amazed. “One of my favorite things that still makes me almost giggle every time is working with lung tissues and seeing their cilia beating and doing their job and pushing little particles along. I’m so proud of them. It’s like having little Neopets,” she said, referring to an early 2000s game where players care for digital creatures.
An MD-PhD student at Columbia University, Hudock received a 2025 PhRMA Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship in Drug Delivery for her research to help create gene therapy for cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that causes severe lung damage.
So far, gene therapies that have worked in animals and in human lung cells in the lab have not worked in humans. Research shows that endocytosis, the process by which cells take up large objects (like gene therapy carriers), works differently in animals than in humans. It also works differently in human cells outside vs. inside the body.
Hudock custom-built a tool to keep small pieces of lung alive outside the body and will compare endocytosis mechanisms in animal and human tissue to understand exactly how this process differs to better predict which gene therapies will be successful in humans. Watch this video to learn more about Hudock and her research.
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