QBI, GIVI, Biofulcrum, and HPMI present the second seminar of the new Infectious Disease and Human Health seminar series, featuring Dr. Carolyn Coyne. Dr.Coyne is a professor of pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Dr. Coyne received her PhD in Pharmacology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and pursued postdoctoral training in microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania. Her laboratory studies the mechanisms by which cellular barriers restrict microbial infection and the means by which microbes have evolved to penetrate these barriers to cause human disease. A primary focus of her laboratory is on the human placenta. Given its essential role in protecting the fetus, the placenta must function as a barrier and conduit between the maternal and fetal environments and as an active immunological tissue that responds to microbes present in the maternal circulation.

Dr. Coyne’s laboratory has shown that the placenta is a dynamic and highly reactive chemical barrier that uses multiple classes of molecules, including type III interferons (IFNs) and miRNAs, to protect both the fetus and maternal host from viral infections. They are actively investigating the mechanisms of microbial transmission across the human placenta and continues to study how viruses cross other cellular barriers such as the polarized epithelium that lines the gastrointestinal tract.

Host: Krystal Fontaine