Where does chronic cough begin? 만성기침은 어디에서 시작되는가

Research연구

Key questions핵심 질문

The registry레지스트리

What we can study, and with whom무엇을, 누구와 함께 연구할 수 있는가

One paragraph aimed at collaborators and sponsors: what the platforms contain, what access looks like, and what kinds of questions they can answer. 공동연구자와 후원기관을 위한 한 단락: 플랫폼에 무엇이 있고, 어떻게 접근하며, 어떤 질문에 답할 수 있는지.

Publications논문

Selected work주요 논문

A selection, oldest first, tracing how the lab got here: from counting the global burden, through the search for a usable diagnostic marker, to locating the problem in the nervous system and arguing that chronic cough is a disease in its own right. 전체 목록이 아니라 연구실이 여기까지 온 궤적을 보여주는 논문들을 연도순으로 실었습니다. 전 세계 부담을 집계하는 일에서 출발해, 쓸 만한 진단 지표를 찾고, 문제를 신경계에서 확인하고, 만성기침을 하나의 질환으로 규정하기까지.

• 2015 Epidemiology역학 The global epidemiology of chronic cough in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis The first pooled global estimate of chronic cough prevalence in adults, and an early argument that the absence of a standard definition was holding the field back. Song WJ, Chang YS, Faruqi S, et al., Park HW, Cho SH, Morice AH · Eur Respir J 2015;45(5):1479–1481
• 2017 Diagnosis진단 Diagnostic accuracy of fractional exhaled nitric oxide measurement in predicting cough-variant asthma and eosinophilic bronchitis in adults with chronic cough: a systematic review and meta-analysis Pooling 15 studies showed that exhaled nitric oxide identifies cough-variant asthma reasonably well but performs poorly for eosinophilic bronchitis in people without asthma, marking how far a single biomarker can carry the cough work-up. Song WJ, Kim HJ, Shim JS, et al., Chang YS, Morice AH, Lee BJ, Cho SH · J Allergy Clin Immunol 2017;140(3):701–709
• 2020 Guidelines진료지침 ERS guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of chronic cough in adults and children The European guideline that set out how chronic cough should be assessed and treated, and that brought cough hypersensitivity into the diagnostic framework itself. Morice AH, Millqvist E, Bieksiene K, et al., Song WJ, et al.; ERS Task Force · Eur Respir J 2020;55(1):1901136
• 2021 Neuroimmunology신경면역 Confronting COVID-19-associated cough and the post-COVID syndrome: role of viral neurotropism, neuroinflammation, and neuroimmune responses Proposes that SARS-CoV-2 reaches the vagal sensory nerves and leaves a cough hypersensitivity state behind it — a framework that reframed persistent cough after infection. Song WJ, Hui CKM, Hull JH, Birring SS, McGarvey L, Mazzone SB, Chung KF · Lancet Respir Med 2021;9(5):533–544
• 2022 Disease definition질병 정의 Cough hypersensitivity and chronic cough The reference overview of cough hypersensitivity as the mechanism shared across chronic cough — epidemiology, neurobiology, diagnosis and treatment in one place. Chung KF, McGarvey L, Song WJ, Chang AB, Lai K, Canning BJ, Birring SS, Smith JA, Mazzone SB · Nat Rev Dis Primers 2022;8(1):45
• 2022 Neuroimaging뇌영상 Structural and functional correlates of higher cortical brain regions in chronic refractory cough Brain MRI in patients with refractory chronic cough showed structural and connectivity changes in left frontal regions that tracked with how long the cough had lasted and how much it affected daily life. Namgung E, Song WJ, Kim YH, An J, Cho YS, Kang DW · Chest 2022;162(4):851–860
• 2023 Cough in asthma천식과 기침 Cough and cough hypersensitivity as treatable traits of asthma Makes the case that cough in asthma is clinically relevant, measurable and treatable enough to count as a treatable trait in its own right, and sets out how to assess it in adults and in children. Lai K, Satia I, Song WJ, Wang G, Niimi A, Pattemore P, Chang AB, Gibson PG, Chung KF · Lancet Respir Med 2023;11(7):650–662
• 2024 Measurement측정 도구 The development of the Cough Hypersensitivity Questionnaire for chronic cough Builds and validates a questionnaire that measures cough hypersensitivity directly, developed across UK and Korean patients. Hirons B, Cho PSP, Krägeloh C, et al., Song WJ, Birring SS · ERJ Open Res 2024;10(6):00468-2024
• 2025 Disease definition질병 정의 Chronic cough as a disease: implications for practice, research, and health care Sets out why chronic cough should be handled as a disease in its own right, and what that reframing would change for clinics, trials and health systems. Chung KF, Mazzone SB, McGarvey L, Song WJ · Lancet Respir Med 2025;13(2):110–112
• 2025 Cough hypersensitivity기침과민성 Cough reflex hypersensitivity as a key treatable trait Reviews the peripheral and central neural basis of cough hypersensitivity and makes the case for treating the hypersensitivity itself as the therapeutic target. Song WJ, Manian DV, Kim Y, Zhang M, Morice AH · J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract 2025;13(3):469–478
• 2025 Registry레지스트리 Treatable traits in chronic cough: a prospective evaluation for predicting cough persistence In a prospective cohort, hypersensitivity symptoms — not comorbid traits — predicted whether a cough would still be there months later. Kim Y, Lee SE, Jo EJ, et al., Birring SS, Song WJ · ERJ Open Res 2025;11(4):01357-2024
• 2026 Registry레지스트리 RFC1 repeat expansion in chronic cough: findings from the Korean Chronic Cough Registry The first examination of RFC1 repeat expansion in a non-European chronic cough population, and what it means for how we think about neurogenic cough. Park KE, Lee J, Choi JP, et al., Birring SS, Park HW, Cho SH, Song WJ · Allergy Asthma Immunol Res 2026;18(1):55–66
• 2026 Airway immunology기도면역 Clinical features of cellular senescence pathways in severe asthma Links cellular senescence pathway activity to the clinical features of severe asthma, using the U-BIOPRED cohort. Song WJ, Kermani NZ, Versi A, et al., Adcock IM, Chung KF; U-BIOPRED Study Group · Allergy 2026;81(9):3273–3285

People구성원

The lab연구실 구성원

Principal investigator연구책임자

Woo-Jung Song, MD, MSc, PhD송우정

Professor of Allergy & Clinical Immunology
Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine 울산대학교 의과대학 서울아산병원
알레르기내과 교수

Woo-Jung Song is Professor of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, where he runs a chronic cough clinic and leads the Korean Chronic Cough Registry. He trained at Seoul National University — MD in 2002, a master's in immunology, then a doctorate in clinical pharmacology — and spent 2019–2020 at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, working with Kian Fan Chung. 울산대학교 의과대학 서울아산병원 알레르기내과 교수로, 만성기침 클리닉을 운영하며 한국 만성기침 레지스트리를 이끌고 있습니다. 서울대학교 의과대학에서 의학사(2002), 면역학 석사, 임상약리학 박사를 마쳤고, 2019~2020년 영국 임페리얼칼리지 런던 국립심폐연구소에서 Kian Fan Chung 교수와 함께 연구했습니다.

He chairs the European Respiratory Society Task Force on chronic cough disease classification and nomenclature (TF-2025-08), and the KAAACI Task Force for the Adult Severe Asthma Biological Treatment Guidelines. He served on the ERS chronic cough guideline task force (2017–2019) and the KAAACI chronic cough guideline task force (2016–2018), and now sits on the international advisory board of ERS NEUROCOUGH CRC and the advisory group of the IMPACT Chronic Cough Centre of Research Excellence in Australia. 유럽호흡기학회(ERS) 만성기침 질병 분류·명명법 태스크포스(TF-2025-08)와 대한천식알레르기학회 성인 중증천식 생물학적 치료 지침 태스크포스의 의장을 맡고 있습니다. ERS 만성기침 진료지침(2017~2019)과 대한천식알레르기학회 만성기침 진료지침(2016~2018) 태스크포스에 참여했으며, 현재 ERS NEUROCOUGH CRC 국제자문위원과 호주 IMPACT Chronic Cough Centre of Research Excellence 자문위원으로 활동하고 있습니다.

He is Chief Editor of ERJ Open Research and an Associate Editor of the European Respiratory Journal. He is also an Associate Editor of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Research, cough section director at the Journal of Thoracic Disease, and an editorial board member of Lung and Clinical & Experimental Allergy. He co-edited the ERS Monograph on chronic cough. ERJ Open Research 편집장, European Respiratory Journal 부편집인입니다. 그 밖에 Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Research 부편집인, Journal of Thoracic Disease 기침 섹션 디렉터, Lung과 Clinical & Experimental Allergy 편집위원을 맡고 있으며, ERS 만성기침 단행본을 공동 편집했습니다.

Across the work so far, one question keeps returning: whether chronic cough is better understood as a disorder of airway sensation than as a symptom of something else. 지금까지의 연구를 관통하는 질문은 하나입니다. 만성기침은 다른 병의 증상인가, 아니면 기도 감각 자체의 질환인가.

The team연구팀

Clinical fellows, graduate students and research nurses work across the cough clinic and the registry. Individual profiles are being added. 임상강사, 대학원생, 연구간호사가 만성기침 클리닉과 레지스트리에서 함께 일하고 있습니다. 개별 소개는 준비 중입니다.