Terry Hsieh
MD/PhD in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
BS, Neuroscience. UCLA
We are interested in alterations in innate immunity following traumatic brain injury (TBI). An estimated 1.7 million TBIs occur in the US annually. Our work developed from a clinical analysis of the National Trauma Data Bank showing that head trauma patients exhibit reduced rates of pneumonia compared to blunt trauma controls. Our lab developed a model of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) that recapitulates this clinical scenario. My project is to identify pathways and subsequent immunological changes that mTBI induces to improve host defenses against infection. Understanding these mechanisms may aid in the development of new host-driven therapies to treat a broad range of infections and combat antibiotic resistance.