February 2026 Webinar

Joan Cook-Mills, PhD

Dr. Joan Cook-Mills earned her PhD in Biochemistry from Michigan State University, working with a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Pam Fraker. She did postdoctoral research at the University of Illinois in Chicago, was an Associate Professor at the University of Cincinnati for 13 years and then was a Professor at Northwestern University for 13 years. Then in 2018, she moved her lab to Indiana University where she a is Professor Pediatrics and Microbiology & Immunology.

Dr. Joan Cook-Mills is the Director of the Pediatric Pulmonary, Asthma, and Allergy Basic Research Program in the Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research at Indiana University.

Dr Cook-Mills’ current research interests are focused on determining mechanisms for enhanced allergen responsiveness by neonates and children of allergic mothers. Using in vitro cultures, mouse models and human blood samples, she is examining maternal lipid regulation of the development of dendritic cell subsets which ultimately drive eosinophilic inflammation in offspring of allergic mothers. She is also determining mechanisms for generation of these lipids by mammalian cells and lung microbiota of allergic mothers.

 Zhenying Nie, MD, PhD

Dr. Zhenying (Jane) Nie is an Associate Professor at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU, Portland, OR), where her research focuses on the neural and immunometabolic mechanisms underlying obesity-related asthma. She earned her M.D. and Ph.D. from Beijing Medical University and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Nie’s laboratory investigates how metabolic dysfunction—particularly obesity and hyperinsulinemia—alters neural control of the airways. Her team has shown that both obese animals and the offspring of obese dams develop airway hyperresponsiveness mediated by insulin-dependent increases in sensory and parasympathetic nerve activity. Exposure of offspring of obese dams to house dust mite markedly increases lung eosinophilia and bronchoconstriction. Similarly, adult mice fed a high-fat diet exhibit hyperinsulinemia and neurally mediated airway hyperresponsiveness. In contrast, in adult diet-induced obesity, increased eosinophils in adipose tissue limit weight gain, restrain hyperinsulinemia, and inhibit neurally mediated airway hyperresponsiveness, revealing a novel protective role for eosinophils that may be relevant to obesity-related asthma. Together, these studies indicate that eosinophils play a critical, tissue-specific role in integrating metabolic and immune pathways underlying obesity-related and developmentally programmed asthma.

Ian Lewkowich, PhD

Dr. Ian Lewkowich is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC, Cincinnati, OH, USA) and the Director of the Immunology Graduate Program at the University of Cincinnati. The overall goal of research in the Lewkowich Lab is to identify mechanisms that drive the development of allergic asthma, and associated immunological, behavioral, and physiological co-morbidities.

A major focus of Dr. Lewkowich’s current research program is to elucidate mechanisms whereby early life exposures (to allergens, environmental pollutants, or antibiotics) can influence the development of the lung, and how these developmental changes can regulate long term asthma risk. Recently published work demonstrates that early life dysbiosis in mice has a major impact on asthma outcomes much later in life, driving the development of mixed Th2/Th17 immune responses to allergen that result in more severe asthma-like reactions. More recent work focuses on changes that occur in the lung during critical developmental windows in early life, and how those may contribute to worse asthma outcomes later in life. Interestingly, early life dysbiosis during particular “windows of susceptibility” was found to result in dysregulated homeostatic eosinophil recruitment to the developing lung. Modulation of this homeostatic lung recruitment is found to have effects on baseline lung function and development suggesting that early life eosinophils play an previously underappreciated role in lung development.