Aging on Immunity and How Your Immune System Responds to Infections with Dr. Kerry Russell, MD, PhD (Coronavirus COVID19 Series)

What is Public Health with Dr. Kee Chan

How does our immune system respond to infections?

Dr. Kerry Russell who received her MD and PhD with a research focus in molecular oncology, which is a study of cancer biology, at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas. During her postdoctoral training, she studied cardiovascular biology at Yale University School of Medicine and then served as a faculty clinician-scientist at Yale for 13 years. She also co-founded and ran a clinic for patients with cardiovascular complications of cancer and cancer therapies at Smilow Cancer Center. From 2013-2018, she served as a Senior Director and Translational Medicine Expert at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research where she helped design novel drugs for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, including heart failure and diabetes. Currently, she is the Vice President for Clinical Development at resTORbio, a clinical stage biotechnology company developing medicines to treat aging-related diseases.

In this episode, Dr. Russell will share her insights on how the aging process impact our immune systems and how the immune response responds to infection in general. You’ll going to receive a mini course on immunology 101. This will be helpful for you to understand that terminology used in the media about the coronavirus COVID19 treatment such as anti-viral therapy and the development of vaccines. With this new knowledge, you will be able to answer questions such as what is the difference between passive and active immunity? How do we create herd immunity for the COVID19? What can I do today to help boost my immunity against the aging process? How will that impact our fight against the COVID19 together. Stay tune and listen on.

Questions discussed during the Podcast:

1. How does aging affect immunity?

2. Which health issue is related to aging issues associated with the immune system?

3. What is the role of immune system in multiple disease processes, including hyperactivity of the immune system that contributes to cardiovascular disease?

4. There are a lot of anti-viral therapies out there and there is the current use of malaria treatment. Can you tell us what you think about that?

5. How does the immune system responds to infections?

6. We also have been hearing about people with COVID19 who become very ill and in some case die because of an overactive immune responses which result in a "cytokine storm". What are cytokines and what is a cytokines storm?

7. Can blood type impact someone’s susceptibility to COVID19 and their immune response?

8. What is the difference between passive and activity immunity? 9. How do we develop herd immunity?

Connect with Dr. Kerry Russell on Linkedin

Interested in learning more about YaleWomen - a community of alumna affiliated with Yale, visit YaleWomen at https://www.yalewomen.org

This is the "What is Public Health Podcast" with your host Dr. Kee Chan. Public Health is the invisible force that keeps you healthy everyday, and I bet you didn’t even know it. This podcast is your source of the latest trend in public health, is a place to refresh your skill set and get quick tips on professional development so you can do your best work in serving the public. Discover the many, different, and exciting careers in public health. Connect with stories from people impacted by public health. To learn more about public health, connect with me at www.whatispublichealthpodcast.com

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