Events

Molecular mechanisms of innate immunity and inflammation in health and disease.

Research seminar presented by:

Dr Thiru Kanneganti
Department of Immunology
St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA

Hosted by Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Doherty.

About Dr. Thirumala-Devi Kanneganti

Dr. Thirumala-Devi Kanneganti is a world-leading expert in the fields of innate immunity, cytokines, inflammasomes, and inflammatory cell death. She currently serves as a Member and Vice Chair of the Immunology Department and Director of the Center of Excellence for Innate Immunity and Inflammation, and she holds the distinguished Rose Marie Thomas Endowed Chair at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

As a founding member of the inflammasome field, Dr. Kanneganti’s research has yielded fundamental insights into innate immunity, inflammation, and cell death. Dr. Kanneganti's studies identified NLRP3, ZBP1, AIM2, and NLRP12 as key innate immune sensors and cell death regulators, and she elucidated their upstream regulatory mechanisms, significantly contributing to our understanding of the innate immunity and cell death fields. She also identified the roles of caspase-8, SYK, TAK1, and RIPK1 in innate immune cell death and cytokine regulation processes that are critical in infection, inflammatory diseases, and cancer. Dr. Kanneganti has also pioneered the concept of the inflammatory cell death pathway, PANoptosis. Her research has bridged major gaps in the fields of innate immunity, cell death, and inflammation, laying the foundation for studies on PANoptosomes. Beyond discovering the genetic basis and molecular mechanisms for interacting networks of innate immune sensors and cell death components, her work has established governing biological principles and the physiological relevance of these pathways in infections, inflammatory diseases, and cancer. She has also significantly moved the cytokine field forward and identified regulatory mechanisms and functions for IL-1 family members, and the synergism between TNF and IFN-γ, which induces inflammatory cell death and the “cytokine storm.”

Dr. Kanneganti's exceptional contributions have earned her global recognition. She has been named one of the world's most highly cited researchers for seven consecutive years by Clarivate Analytics. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Kanneganti has also received several prestigious awards, including the American Association of Immunology-BD Biosciences Investigator Award, the American Society for Microbiology Eli Lilly and Company-Elanco Research Award, the Rosalind Franklin Society Special Award in Science, and the International Cytokine and Interferon Society Milstein Award for Excellence in Interferon and Cytokine Research. More recently, she received the 2024 American Association of Immunologists-Thermo Fisher Meritorious Career Award. By continually advancing basic and translational research, Dr. Kanneganti remains at the forefront of her field, pioneering new research frontiers in human health.