Breathe Center

What Breathe Center does

BREATHE Center is a pulmonary and environmental health research center affiliated with Johns Hopkins University, located at the Hopkins Bayview campus in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1998 as the Center for Childhood Asthma in the Urban Environment (CCAUE) and renamed BREATHE Center in 2017, it operates as a federally funded academic research unit within Johns Hopkins Medicine rather than a commercial enterprise. Its core work spans community-engaged research on how air pollution, allergens, diet, and the built environment drive childhood asthma and adult COPD, supported by an NIEHS P50-equivalent center grant (P2CES033415) and a separate NHLBI R33 grant (4R33HL157845), with supplemental donations routed through the Johns Hopkins giving platform.

The center's product surface combines research programs with educational and data assets. Core programs include the Lung Health Ambassador Program (LHAP), Asthma CHAMPS (a CDC EXHALE-aligned multi-level school intervention deployed across 32 Baltimore City schools from Fall 2023 through June 2026), Medicine for the Greater Good (community engagement), and a K-12 COVID-19 curriculum launched nationally and internationally. Research products include the Lung Health Dashboard (an interactive Baltimore lung health data visualization), the Clean Air Trial and OMEGA studies for COPD, the MINA (metformin) trial for asthma, and the D.R.E.A.M. pediatric sleep-environment study. Outreach extends through peer-reviewed publication (2015-2026), media appearances in major outlets, podcasts, and policy advocacy that contributed to Maryland's 2024 stock albuterol legislation.

The center is led by Director Meredith C. McCormack (MD, MHS) and Deputy Director Kirsten Koehler (PhD), with a multi-disciplinary faculty of approximately 28 named investigators from Johns Hopkins schools of medicine and public health. Its operating model is grant-dependent: federal research awards plus donations, with no commercial pricing or product revenue. Strategic partnerships anchor the model, including Baltimore City Public Schools, the Baltimore City Health Department, NIEHS, NHLBI, EPA, Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute, the American Lung Association, and research collaborators at NYU and Kaiser Permanente.

Name

Breathe Center

Legal name

BREATHE Center

Website

https://breathecenter.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1998

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Pulmonary Health Research

NAICS

Offices of Other Health Practitioners (6213)

SIC

Services-Offices & Clinics Of Doctors Of Medicine (8011), Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYHLAKANAA

General Pulmonology Practice

Healthcare & Life Sciences/Specialist Medical Practice/Pulmonology & Sleep Medicine

SECONDARYHLAKAAAC

Asthma & Airway Disease Specialty Care

Healthcare & Life Sciences/Specialist Medical Practice/Allergy & Immunology

SECONDARYHLAKANAE

COPD & Chronic Bronchitis Management

Healthcare & Life Sciences/Specialist Medical Practice/Pulmonology & Sleep Medicine

Keywords

• Pulmonary health research
• Environmental lung research
• Community asthma programs
• Asthma clinical trials
• COPD clinical research

Headquarters

HQ city

Baltimore

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Federal Research Grants: Primarily funded through NIH/NIEHS/NHLBI grants and EPA cooperative agreements for children's environmental health research. The center receives P50/P30 type center grants and pilot project awards.
2. Donations: Accepts charitable donations through Johns Hopkins University giving platform. Donors can contribute to the BREATHE Center Fund.

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

BREATHE Center conducts community-engaged pulmonary health research focused on environmental determinants of asthma, COPD, and indoor/outdoor air quality. It delivers educational programs (LHAP, Asthma CHAMPS, COVID-19 curriculum), runs multiple clinical research studies (Clean Air Trial, OMEGA, MINA, D.R.E.A.M.), and provides community advocacy through Medicine for the Greater Good. Its Lung Health Dashboard offers an interactive data visualization of Baltimore lung health metrics. The center serves research participants, schools, and health department partners rather than selling commercial products.

Product overview

The Breathe Center operates as a research and community engagement organization focused on lung health, offering a suite of educational programs and research initiatives rather than a unified software product. Its core offerings include the Lung Health Dashboard (an interactive data visualization tool for Baltimore lung health data), the Lung Health Ambassador Program (LHAP) for K-12 student education, Asthma CHAMPS for school-based asthma intervention, and a COVID-19 school curriculum. The organization also conducts multiple clinical research studies including trials for COPD and asthma treatments, and runs community engagement through the Medicine for the Greater Good initiative.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Lung Health Ambassador Program (LHAP): An educational initiative that aims to inform young students about lung health and risk factors for lung disease, building a culture where students understand their environment's impact on health while equipping them with tools they can use.
• Asthma CHAMPS (Community and Home Asthma Management Program in Schools)
• Medicine for the Greater Good

Quantifiable outcome

• Asthma CHAMPS program implemented in 32 Baltimore City schools over 3 years
• +2 more outcomes

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core, minor and major.

• Baltimore City Public SchoolscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2023Primary educational partnership implementing the Asthma CHAMPS program in 32 elementary/middle schools. Also partners through the Lung Health Ambassador Program (LHAP) which brings respiratory health education directly into classrooms. Schools include Armistead, Commodore John Rodgers, Calvert High School, Overlea High School, and many others.
• Baltimore City Health DepartmentcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborative partnership for community asthma interventions. Works together on school health programs and community outreach initiatives including the Community Asthma Program (CAP) coordination.
• Johns Hopkins MedicinecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBREATHE Center is an integral part of Johns Hopkins University, utilizing Hopkins Bayview campus facilities and collaboration with Johns Hopkins Asthma Center, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine department, and other Hopkins research centers.
• NYU and Kaiser PermanenteminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch collaborators on Emily Scott's project to establish heat and air quality thresholds for asthma exacerbation. Contributing geographically diverse patient populations for replication analyses.
• Johns Hopkins Urban Health InstitutemajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-host of annual Social Determinants of Health Symposium focusing on housing and health. Meredith McCormack moderates panels on quality and safety as part of this partnership.
• American Lung AssociationmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborates on annual State of the Air reports and lung health advocacy. Faculty members contribute expertise and appear in ALA publications and podcasts (Lungcast series).
• Mr. Mack Lewis FoundationminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCommunity awardee partner through Lung Health Ambassador Program. Collaboration to provide greenspace at a local youth boxing gym as part of environmental health focus in the community.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• American Lung Association: National advocacy organization collaborating with BREATHE on State of the Air reports and the Lungcast podcast. Not a research center itself, but a primary channel for translating BREATHE's research into national policy and public awareness.
• Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America: National nonprofit addressing asthma and allergic disease through research funding, education, and advocacy. Operates in an adjacent space with overlapping patient populations but a broader allergy-immunology remit.
• Allergy & Asthma Network: Patient-advocacy organization highlighted in BREATHE's coverage of Maryland's stock albuterol law. Operates in the same asthma-advocacy space but focuses on patient education and policy rather than original research.

Direct peers

• Johns Hopkins Asthma Center: Direct internal peer within the same Johns Hopkins Medicine ecosystem. Operates adjacent clinical and research programs on asthma, sharing faculty and patient cohorts with BREATHE Center, with overlapping focus on urban asthma disparities.
• UC Berkeley Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health: Another NIEHS/EPA Children's Environmental Health Center conducting longitudinal studies of environmental exposures and child respiratory outcomes (CHAMACOS cohort). Directly comparable in funding model, research design, and community-engaged methods.
• University of Washington Environmental Health Research Center: Academic environmental health research center studying air pollution, respiratory health, and community disparities. Comparable in its NIH-funded research portfolio and emphasis on environmental determinants of lung disease.
• Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health: Sister NIEHS/EPA-funded Children's Environmental Health Center with parallel longitudinal research on urban air pollution and childhood asthma. One of the original cohort of Children's Centers alongside BREATHE and a directly comparable research organization.
• Mount Sinai Children's Environmental Health Center: NIEHS/EPA Children's Center focused on urban pediatric environmental health and asthma. Operates with the same federal funding model and community-engaged research approach as BREATHE Center.

Others

• Environmental Defense Fund: National environmental advocacy organization working on air quality policy that intersects with BREATHE's research mission. Not a research peer, but a policy and ecosystem actor whose work amplifies BREATHE's findings into regulatory advocacy.
• National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS): Primary federal funding agency and program sponsor. Not a peer in the competitive sense, but the institutional anchor whose funding priorities and Children's Centers program shape BREATHE's research agenda.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@breathecenter
• Xx.com/centerbreathe
• Facebookfacebook.com/CenterBreathe

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Breathe Center