Researchers recently found cellular enzymes, termed proteostasis regulators and also efficient small molecule drugs that can inhibit these regulators so as to protect the mutant protein and restore the function of salt transport. The mechanism by which these regulators protect the mutant CFTR protein is not known and if uncovered if understood could an provide us with more specific drug targets. They will use state-of-the-art transcriptomic and proteomic methods to understand how these regulators act; then they will test small molecules inhibiting regulators in laboratory cell lines.