The laboratory of Dawn Newcomb, PhD, is focused on determining the role of sex hormones on innate lymphoid cell and T cell differentiation and cytokine expression, using asthma as a disease model. To study this, they utilize lymphocytes from the blood of healthy and asthmatic individuals as well as mouse models which mimic asthma. Findings from the Newcomb Lab will be important in determining why women are more likely to have asthma as adults compared to men and may provide new potential therapeutic targets for treating airway inflammation.
Dr. Newcomb earned her PhD from the University of Michigan and did her post-doctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt University. She has a long-standing interest and robust research program focused on mechanisms of airway inflammation in asthma. Her research has defined many of the mechanisms describing how sex hormones modulate lung immune responses in asthma.
Dr. Newcomb is an Associated Editor for the Journal of Immunology, a Review Editor for Frontiers in Asthma, and she is actively involved in the American Thoracic Society and the American Academy for Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology. She has spoken at international academic conferences on her work and authored over 70 publications.
Dr. Newcomb also serves on many Vanderbilt University Medical Center institutional committees, recruits new trainees, and actively participates in the VI4 and Vanderbilt Center for Immunobiology. She is a nationally recognized researcher that is committed to her research, teaching/mentoring, and service opportunities at VUMC.