by Leigh MacMillan
Richard Locksley, MD, director of the Sandler Asthma Basic Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco, will deliver the next Flexner Discovery Lecture on Thursday, Feb. 20.
Locksley’s lecture, “Innate Allergy — What Does It Tell Us?,” will begin at 4 p.m. in 208 Light Hall. It is sponsored by the Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology and Inflammation.
Locksley and his team study the cells and cytokine factors of the immune response, with a particular interest in allergic, or type 2, immunity. Type 2 immunity evolved to combat parasitic worms. When this response is directed at normally harmless proteins in dust, pollen, foods or other environmental substances, it causes allergic diseases.
Locksley contributed to the discovery of a novel class of immune cells called group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) that are associated with allergic immunity. He and his colleagues continue to explore the roles of ILC2s in both allergic immunity and normal tissue physiology.
An Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1997, Locksley is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. He is also a Distinguished Fellow of the American Association of Immunologists.
For a complete schedule of Flexner Discovery Lectures and archived video of previous lectures, go https://www.vumc.org/dls/.