BUSM Lecture Honors Victim of 9/11 Tragedy
BUSM will present the 10th annual Sue Kim Hanson Lecture in Immunology at noon, Friday, Sept.16, in the School of Medicine’s Keefer Auditorium. The annual lecture honors Sue Kim Hanson, MA, and PhD ’02, a former researcher in BUSM’s Pulmonary Center. Hanson, her husband and their daughter were passengers on one of the airplanes that struck the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
This year’s lecturer is Brigitta Stockinger, PhD, Head of the Division of Molecular Immunology at the National Institute for Medical Research (London). Stockinger is also a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
The lecture, “Regulation of interleukin-17 mediated immune responses: from controlled inflammation to autoimmunity,” will focus on interleukin-17, which is necessary to coordinate the inflammatory immune response required to defend the body against infectious agents, particularly fungal and other specific bacterial infections (such as pneumonia, streptococcus and pertussis). The absence or malfunction of interleukin-17 in patients could cause immune pathology and even initiate autoimmune diseases in which the body reacts against its own components (multiple sclerosis for example). The finely tuned reactions of a functioning immune system fight environmental pollutants and regulate the body’s inflammatory responses.
Stockinger has devoted her research career to understanding T cell regulation and memory (with an emphasis on Th17 cells that produce interleukin-17), which when coupled with external environmental factors can affect the immune system. Stockinger emphasizes the importance of the adaptability and functional flexibility of T lymphocytes (which secrete interleukin-17) as they have the ability to safeguard the body by fighting infection or attack the body, causing immune pathology or disease.
Sue Kim Hanson moved to Boston and earned a master’s degree in medical sciences from BUSM in 1992. After graduation she joined the school’s Pulmonary Center and then entered BUSM’s doctoral program in the Immunology Training Program through the department of pathology and laboratory medicine.
Her dissertation project was an investigation of the role of interleukin-16 in immunity and targeted deletion of the interleukin-16 gene in mice. Her degree was awarded posthumously by unanimous vote by the dissertation committee.
“Sue was on her way to a promising career in molecular biology,” said David Center, MD, Gordon and Ruth Snider professor of pulmonary medicine and associate provost for translational research. “While her life was taken at an early age, her legacy lives on through this annual lecture. We are proud to remember and honor her and her family each year.”