Metro Police Academy’s Kevin Guyton eats an ice cream cone at the Kenneth Gifford celebration last week. The celebration was for volunteers who helped find Gifford, who wandered away from VUH. (photo by Dana Johnson)
Dr. R. Stokes Peebles was awarded this year’s Education and Research Trust Faculty Development Award at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology in March.
Peebles, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, was nominated because of his unique and extensive understanding of basic immunology and his passion to learn more about the underlying causes of allergy and asthma.
Recent findings of Peebles’ research using a mouse model suggested that the cyclooxygenase enzymes play an important role in the allergic process, and potentially also in asthma. He plans to explore how products of these enzymes control allergic inflammation.
“We feel that this could greatly impact patient care with potential new drugs or immunotherapy,” Peebles said.
The award provides Peebles with $100,000 per year over the next three years to support his research at Vanderbilt.
Peebles received his medical degree from Vanderbilt and completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Vanderbilt. He served as Chief Resident in Internal Medicine at Veterans Administration Hospital in Nashville and completed his fellowship in allergy and clinical immunology at Johns Hopkins. He also completed a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Vanderbilt in 1998.