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Research Fellow
David L. Tamang, PhD
The human body is a complex system of multiple interacting components that maintain both life and health. The immune system evolved to protect us from external microbes that would otherwise consume us for food. To defend our bodies against invasion, the immune system dispatches specialized cells to destroy invading microbes. For example, when bacteria breach our skin, an influx of “foot soldiers” called neutrophils attack the bacteria. The neutrophils represent your body’s first line of defense and hold the infection at bay, if not destroying it outright. If neutrophils were not present, by the time other arms of the immune system respond, the infection would be too massive to overcome and you would die.
Conversely, neutrophils represent a double-edged sword. Because they are highly potent rapid responders that release a multitude of inflammatory and destructive molecules, neutrophilic responses often exacerbate chronic inflammatory disease. A delicate balance must be maintained between an appropriate response and a chronic over-response. Understanding the balance is essential to optimal treatment for inflammatory disease.
How do the neutrophils know where the infection is, and how do they make their way to that site? We hypothesize that an enzyme called 12-lipoxygenase produced by the epithelial cells in the lung is important to neutrophil homing. The enzymatic products of the lipoxygenase family are known neutrophil chemo-attractants, but the precise role in a disease state is unresolved. Our group studies mechanisms of lipoxygenase-mediated neutrophil chemotaxis in the context of inflammatory lung disease. My project involves dissecting the role of lipoxygenase in neutrophil migration to the site of bacterial lung infection. There are numerous circumstances where neutrophil modulation is useful, including disease processes such as asthma, cystic fibrosis and pneumonia. We hope to exploit the lipoxygenase pathway to devise potential therapeutic avenues which will translate to the clinic.
Dr. Tamang is a Fellow in Dr. Hurley's lab.
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