Faculty Café with Dr. Kari Heckman: Modulating Macrophage-Mediated Inflammation for Good… or Bad?
Inflammation plays a vital role in protecting the body from disease, yet excessive inflammatory responses can also cause serious harm. In this Faculty Café presentation, Dr. Kari Heckman explores how immune system activity can produce both beneficial and damaging effects and examines emerging research on ways to influence these responses.
Inflammation is a cause of both good and bad effects in the body. Protection against pathogens involves a rapid inflammatory response and robust immune cell activity. However, even this protective mechanism can become so strong that its mediators threaten patients’ lives, as observed in some COVID-19 patients.
This talk will clarify the positive and negative effects of inflammation and consider whether modulating the activity of the macrophage cell will yield better or worse outcomes in different contexts. Preliminary evidence of macrophage modulation will be presented to illustrate the potential effects of the phytochemical cardamonin on macrophage pro-inflammatory behavior.
Speaker Bio
Dr. Kari Heckman has been teaching at St. Lawrence University since 2007. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Community Medical Dietetics, completing clinical and community nutrition work to become a registered dietitian. Seeking to pursue research at a more cellular level, she later earned her PhD in Biomedical Sciences: Immunology from the Mayo Clinic.
Her research has examined immune cells in the contexts of autoimmunity, allergic asthma, and cancer. She now focuses on naturally occurring compounds that modulate immune function, particularly the macrophage.