December 2023 Webinar
Neuroimmunology in Eosinophils
Wednesday, 13 December 2023
9:30 am - 11:00 am US Eastern / 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm Central Europe
Our live webinars are completely free of charge, we just ask that you register in advance. Webinars are hosted on Zoom and audience members can ask questions using the Q&A feature. Real-time closed captioning is available for those with hearing impairments.
Program
9:30 am – 9:35 am: Welcome
IES President: Marc Rothenberg, MD, PhD - United States
9:35 am – 9:40 am: Opening Remarks
Moderators: Matthew Drake, MD and Ubaldo De La Torre - United States
9:40 am – 10:00 am: Neuromedin U Programs Eosinophils to Promote Mucosal Immunity of the Small Intestine
Presenter: Heping Xu, PhD - China
10:00 am - 10:05 am: Q&A
10:05 am – 10:25 am: Sensory Neuronal Regulation of Tissue Eosinophilic Inflammation
Presenter: Brian Kim, MD - United States
10:25 am - 10:30 am: Q&A
10:30 am – 10:50 am: Starting from Scratch – Neuroimmune Control of Allergy
Presenter: Caroline Sokol, MD, PhD - United States
10:50 am - 10:55 am: Q&A
10:55 am – 11:00 am: Closing Remarks
IES President: Marc Rothenberg, MD, PhD - United States
Moderator: Matthew Drake, MD - United States
Speakers
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Dr. Heping Xu, PhD |
Dr. Heping Xu is an Assistant Professor in the School of Life Sciences at Westlake University. He obtained his Ph.D. from the Institute for Immunology at Tsinghua University in 2014. Following the completion of his doctoral studies, he pursued postdoctoral research training at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard from 2014 to 2019. In 2019, he joined Westlake University. The broad research interests of his group lie in the field of immunophysiology and systems immunology. Currently, the specific research area in his laboratory is focused on the neuronal regulation of immune cell activities in the mucosal tissues and meninges. |
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Dr. Brian Kim, MD |
Dr. Kim received his M.D. from the University of Washington, was a HHMI-NIH Scholar, completed residency in dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania where he earned a Master of Translational Research (MTR). The Kim Lab focuses on mechanisms that underlie skin inflammation and the sensation of itch as a fundamental, broad, model paradigm of neuroimmunology. Key discoveries include the first identification of group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) in the skin of both mice and humans, novel contributions of basophils, ILC2s, and natural killer (NK) cells to skin inflammation, and unveiling how immune cells and type 2 cytokines/JAK signaling directly influence sensory neuronal responses. He has >120 peer-reviewed publications, multiple NIH grants, designed pivotal clinical trials that led to novel FDA-approved treatments, and is an inventor of itch-centered technologies. His research has led to awards and funding from NIH, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, American Skin Association, American Academy of Dermatology, American Society for Clinical Investigation, American Dermatological Association, and International League of Dermatological Societies. He holds a patent for the use of JAK inhibitors for chronic itch. He is on the scientific advisory board for Abrax Japan, Granular Therapeutics, Recens Medical, National Eczema Association, and Cell Reports Medicine. He is on the editorial board of Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, section editor for Journal of Immunology and on the board of reviewing editors for eLife. |
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Dr. Caroline Sokol, MD, PhD |
Dr. Sokol is a practicing allergist and principal investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. Her laboratory studies the cutaneous neuro-immune interactions promoting allergic immune disease and underlying allergen induced itch responses. She has provided several seminal contributions to the field, establishing the cysteine protease activity of allergens as Type-2 adjuvants, illustrating a role for basophils in the skewing of Th2 cells, and identifying a requirement for CCR8 in the entry of allergic-skewing dendritic cells into the lymph node. Most recently her laboratory established sensory neurons as crucial in linking allergen detection with dendritic cell activation and the initiation of the allergic immune response. In addition to these roles, Dr. Sokol is the Associate Program Director for the Physician-Scientist Pathway in the Internal Medicine Residency at MGH. |
