Dr. Smyth recently received a $2.1 million grant to develop new techniques for drug delivery to the lungs, helping in the fight against such lung diseases as cystic fibrosis. He was awarded the grant from the National Institute of Health's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. One of the major reasons, said Smyth, for poor life expectancy in people with cystic fibrosis is the inability of treatment therapies to get to the lung cells responsible for the disease. One symptom of the disease is the secretion of a dense, sticky mucus, which is hard to break through. Smyth is working to break open or knife through the secretions so that gene therapies and drugs can treat symptoms.