Incoming dean of Weill Cornell receives 2011 ICS Honorary Lifetime Membership

Dr. Laurie Glimcher, the incoming dean of Weill Cornell Medical College, has received the 2011 International Cytokine Society (ICS) Honorary Lifetime Membership, the Society's highest honor, for her pivotal contributions to cytokine research, particularly as it relates to immune response.

Cytokines are protein molecules secreted by the nervous system and immune system that are used in intercellular communication.

The award will be presented at the joint yearly ICS/ International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research (ISICR) international conference in Florence, Italy, on Oct. 10. The focus of the meeting is cytokine-specific lymphocyte subtypes, which is Dr. Glimcher's specialty.

"I am thrilled to receive this honor from my peers at the International Cytokine Society," says Dr. Glimcher, who is currently the Irene Heinz Given Professor of Immunology at the Harvard School of Public Health. "The field of cytokine research holds much promise for understanding immune responses underlying autoimmune, infectious, allergic and malignant diseases."

Dr. Glimcher's laboratory has studied ways to control the production of small hormone-like mediators called cytokines in order to elucidate the regulatory pathways that control important immune checkpoints that regulate lymphocyte development. Notably, her laboratory defined the genetic bases of cytokine expression in T helper lymphocytes.

Source: Weill Cornell Medical College.