Dr. Dawn Bodish: Life is too short to be doing work you don't want to do The Last Word with Vish

Dr. Dawn M. E. Bowdish is a Canadian immunologist and currently a professor in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. She is a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Aging & Immunity. She is known for several discoveries including the immunomodulatory properties of the antimicrobial peptide LL-37, how MARCO signaling complex recognizes Mycobacterium tuberculosis, age-associated inflammation and its effects on clearing pneumococcal pneumonia and how the aging gut microbiome drives age-associated inflammation. Dr. Bowdish was born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1976. In 1999, she graduated from the University of Guelph with an Honours Bachelor of Science in microbiology. Bowdish was a graduate student and obtained her PhD from the University of British Columbia between 2000 – 2005. There, under the supervision of Robert E. W. Hancock, she discovered the immunomodulatory role of the host defense peptide LL-37. As a Canadian Institute of Health Research Post-Doctoral Fellow, Bowdish worked at the University of Oxford from 2005-2008 under the supervision of Siamon Gordon in the Department of Pathology. Dr. Dawn Bowdish’s lab is focusing on why the elderly are particularly susceptible to pneumonia and striving to extend lives by developing new therapies that bolster the body’s own natural defense mechanisms. You can follow Dr. Bowdish on Twitter @MsMacrophage