Russell Ross Endowed Lectureship: Defective Inflammation Resolution in Atherosclerosis: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Opportunities
This event has ended.
Speaker
Ira Tabas
Richard J. Stock Professor and Vice-Chairman of Research
Department of Medicine, Cell Biology and Physiology
Columbia University Medical Center
- Faculty Sponsor
Elaine Raines, MS
- Date & Time
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May 11, 2016 at 4:30pm - 5:30pm
- Location
Health Sciences Building, T-739
- Calendar
- Export
Description
Why attend?
Defective Inflammation Resolution in Atherosclerosis: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Opportunities
Vertebrates have evolved a highly powerful inflammatory response to prevent our demise from pathogens. Successful defense against pathogens comes at the expense of collateral tissue damage. Thus, built into the inflammatory response is a resolution program that helps repair this collateral damage and prevents excessive inflammation, while continuing to promote pathogen clearance. As it turns out, many of the devastating diseases in our society associated with aging, including atherosclerosis, metabolic disease, and neurodegenerative disease, are driven by a chronic, non-resolving inflammatory response. Using advanced atherosclerosis as an example, this seminar will discuss the molecular-cellular mechanisms of defective resolution and suggest how this knowledge can be used to devise new therapies that are distinctly different from currently available "anti-inflammatory" drugs.
There will a reception held before the lecture in Health Sciences Building T-739.
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The Russell Ross Lectureship series is dedicated to the memory and scientific legacy of Dr. Russell Ross, Professor and Chair, Department of Pathology, 1982-1994.
Russell Ross, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, 1982-1994
Dr. Russell Ross died on March 18, 1999. He came to the University of Washington in 1958 as a graduate student in the Experimental Pathology Program directed by Dr. Earl Benditt. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1962, Dr. Ross rose through the faculty ranks and was appointed Professor of Pathology in 1969. As Chair of the Department, Dr. Ross greatly expanded the activities of the department and strengthened both its research and clinical activities to make it one of the top departments of pathology in the country. Because of his dynamic leadership and the work of many colleagues, the University of Washington School of Medicine came to be recognized as an outstanding center for research and training in vascular biology and pathology.
Dr. Ross made notable contributions to the understanding of the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Together with John Glomset, Dr. Ross formulated the “Response to Injury Hypothesis” of atherosclerosis in 1973. The hypothesis, which has been tested and modified from its original formulation, has had a profound impact on atherosclerosis research and vascular biology. Instead of a site for passive accumulation of blood lipids, the artery wall is now seen as a living, reactive tissue capable of mounting an inflammatory response. Dr. Ross and his colleagues are credited with many major discoveries.
Dr. Ross was honored with many awards, honorary professorships, and lectureships. In just one year, 1998, he received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Society of for Cardiovascular Pathology, the Louis and Artur Lucian Award for Research in Circulatory Diseases from McGill University in Montreal, the International Okamoto Award from the Japanese Vascular Disease Research Foundation, and presented the first Distinguished Vascular Biology Lecture of the American Heart Association. He was past president of the American Society for Investigative Pathology and in 1992 received the Society’s Rous-Whipple Award. He was also a member of the Editorial Board of The American Journal of Pathology.
Dr. Ross was a member of many national and international committees, chaired and co-chaired 15 research conferences, and served as a consultant to biotech and pharmaceutical companies. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1987. He was heavily involved in community activities and was a longstanding member of the Board of Trustees, the Artistic Advisory Committee, and the Planning Committee of the Seattle Symphony.
Dr. Ross was a very productive scientist and an outstanding teacher. He trained a large number of post-doctoral fellows who went on to have distinguished careers of their own in this country and around the world.