Dr. Alexander Hillel is a Laryngologist and Airway Surgeon in the Johns Hopkins Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery. His clinical practice and research centers on the treatment, prevention, and causes of subglottic stenosis (SGS). His translational laboratory developed model systems to study immunologic and metabolic mechanisms that promote LTS. Specifically, he and the laboratory are examining mTOR (mechanistic target of rapamycin) and its role in fibroblasts, immune cells, and epithelial cells to regulate inflammation leading to fibrosis. Dr. Hillel has translated these scientific advances to the bedside by completing the first interventional clinical trial in idiopathic subglottic stenosis assessing the safety of mTOR inhibitors as adjuvant therapy to surgical dilation in iSGS patients. Dr. Hillel is currently leading a multi-institutional prospective, randomized, double-blind clinical trial studying the efficacy of adjuvant serial intralesional steroid injections in individuals with idiopathic subglottic stenosis.