Explore Our Commitment to Advancing Medical Research
Purple Rose Initiative is rooted in cystic fibrosis and expanding into related areas of research where chronic infection, inflammation, genetics, airway disease, antibiotics, and long-term quality of life intersect.
Programs in Development
Purple Rose Initiative is a newly approved 501 ( c )(3) nonprofit organization, and these programs represent the areas of research and education we are working to grow.
As funding, grants, partnerships, and community support come in, a larger portion of donations will be directed toward facilities, researchers, and programs advancing work in these areas.
These are not just “rare disease” conversations. The answers found through this research may one day help your child, your sibling, your parent, your partner, your neighbor — or even yourself.
Because chronic infection, inflammation, genetics, airway disease, antibiotic exposure, immune response, aging, and quality of life do not belong to one diagnosis alone.
They connect families across many conditions.
Below are a few of the studies we are focusing on. Since we are a new 501c3 organization, we plan to have updates beginning in September 2026 with a plan to have success rates and reports and timeline updates available by December of 2027.
The Bronchiectasis & Airway Research Program
Bronchiectasis is not one single disease. It is a serious airway condition that can develop from many different causes, including cystic fibrosis, primary ciliary dyskinesia, immune dysfunction, chronic infections, aspiration, autoimmune disease, and sometimes causes that remain unknown.
CF gives researchers one powerful model: a monogenic disease where one gene, CFTR, disrupts salt and water movement, mucus clearance, and long-term airway health.
PCD tells another story. Instead of one ion channel, PCD involves the tiny moving structures called cilia — and the many proteins and genes required for them to work properly. When cilia cannot clear mucus well, patients can suffer chronic sinus disease, ear infections, lung infections, fertility issues, and bronchiectasis.
Different roots. Shared burden.
The Bronchiectasis & Airway Research Program exists to help connect these communities and support research into the common pathways they share:
mucus clearance, chronic infection, airway injury, inflammation, immune response, genetics, and long-term quality of life.
Because many patients are still undiagnosed. Many are undertreated. Many are living with symptoms that look similar — even when the cause underneath is different.
By studying these connections, researchers can better understand disease manifestation, improve diagnosis, develop better therapies, and help families who have spent years searching for answers.
Principles of Aging in a CF Body — and Beyond
For decades, cystic fibrosis was viewed mainly as a childhood disease.
That is changing.
Because of medical advances, more people with CF are living into adulthood, and researchers are now asking new questions about what it means for the body to age with a lifelong genetic disease.
Years of inflammation, infection, nutritional stress, pancreatic involvement, liver stress, sinus disease, bone health challenges, mental health burden, and medication exposure may affect the body in ways we are only beginning to understand.
These questions do not belong to CF alone.
Patients with bronchiectasis, PCD, autoimmune overlap, chronic lung disease, immune dysfunction, and other long-term inflammatory conditions may face similar patterns: the body adapting, compensating, and carrying disease over time.
Purple Rose Initiative believes this is one of the most important next chapters in research:
not just helping people live longer, but helping them live better.
Research into aging, inflammation, immune response, organ health, and chronic disease burden can help us understand how to protect the whole body — not just treat one symptom at a time.
Antibiotics, Infection, and the Long-Term Body
For many patients with CF, bronchiectasis, PCD, and chronic airway disease, antibiotics are not occasional medications.
They are part of life.
They can be lifesaving. They can protect lungs, fight infections, reduce hospitalizations, and give patients more time.
But long-term and repeated antibiotic exposure also raises important research questions.
How does it affect the gut microbiome?
How does it influence inflammation?
How does it impact resistance, immune response, organ health, and quality of life?
How do we protect patients who need these medications again and again?
This is not about being anti-antibiotic.
It is about being honest: patients who rely on antibiotics deserve deeper research, safer strategies, better infection control, and more personalized treatment options.
By studying chronic infection and antibiotic burden across CF, bronchiectasis, PCD, and related diseases, researchers may uncover better ways to treat infection while protecting the whole body.
That is where the next generation of care must go.
Where Support Will Go
Purple Rose Initiative is not a hospital, clinic, or medical provider. We do not diagnose, treat, or provide individual medical advice.
Instead, our role is to help fund and support the facilities, researchers, clinicians, and programs already doing the work — including specific programs within the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, our local children’s hospital, and leading research centers focused on cystic fibrosis, bronchiectasis, chronic infection, inflammation, genetics, and related diseases.
Our goal is to help increase opportunity for specified research — the kind of research that asks the harder questions families are still waiting to have answered.
Education, Not Medical Advice
he information shared through Purple Rose Initiative is intended for education, awareness, and advocacy.
Anything you learn through PRI should be discussed with your own medical team before making decisions about personal care, treatment, medication, or testing.
Every patient is different. Every body is different. Every treatment plan should be guided by qualified medical professionals who understand the individual person.
Purple Rose Initiative exists to spread the word, support meaningful research, and help move important questions forward — not to replace medical care.
Research Programs & Areas of Interest
Purple Rose Initiative is rooted in cystic fibrosis and expanding into related areas of research where chronic infection, inflammation, genetics, airway disease, antibiotic exposure, aging, and long-term quality of life intersect.
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