Mary F. Lipscomb M.D.
Professor, Pulmonary Immunopathology
Mary F. Lipscomb, M.D., has had a long-standing interest in how the lung responds to infection and develops an appropriate immune response that protects against future infections. She is the Principal Investigator on the UNM NIH-funded Specialized Center for Research (SCOR) grant for asthma and the Principal Investigator for the Infectious Diseases and Inflammation Program T32 training grant for graduate student training. In the past, she has studied infections with the fungus Cryptococcus neoformans, which causes infections in people with AIDs, and with influenza virus. Lung dendritic cells are a particular focus of Dr. Lipscomb's, because they are critical in stimulating immunity in the lung. Thus, dendritic cells receive signals from their environment that determine whether these cells will stimulate a healthy or unhealthy immune response to antigens that get into the lungs. In the context of the Asthma SCOR, she is examining how the failure of normal immune regulation in the lung might lead to the development of asthma. These studies investigate the role of lung dendritic cells in linking infection and environmental insults to the development and persistence of asthma. More recently, Dr. Lipscomb, with her collaborator Dr. Rick Lyons, who directs an animal model testing center for the prevention and treatment for bacterial and viral infections at UNM, has embarked on studies to understand how poxviruses and Bacillus anthracis infect via the lungs with the goal of identifying ways to protect humans against these potentially lethal infections. She is also study how a number of infectious agents affect human dendritic cell function.
