News & Events / BME Seminar Series / Past Seminar Speakers / 2018-19Kevin Tracey, MD
BME Seminar Series Winter 2019
Thursday, March 7, 2019 at 4-5 pm
Hughes Auditorium, Chicago
Host: Professor Jonathan Rivnay
President and CEO, Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
Professor and Director, The Center for Biomedical Science, Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
Professor, Neurosurgery and Molecular Medicine, Zucker School of Medicine
Executive Vice President, Research, Northwell Health
Molecular Mechanisms in Bioelectronic Medicine
Inflammation is a locally protective response to infection or injury. Health is established when the magnitude and duration of inflammatory responses are controlled precisely; because when it is either excessive or insufficient the viability of the host is compromised. Vertebrates have two systems that can establish memory: the nervous system and the immune system. In the inflammatory reflex, a prototypical model of interaction between these two systems, signals propagating in vagus nerve axons control inflammatory responses in the spleen and other body organs. The underlying anatomic, neurophysiological, and molecular mechanisms expand our understanding of how the nervous system modulates the immune system. And provides a new opportunity to use bioelectronic devices targeting reflex neural circuits to treat inflammatory diseases in successful clinical trials.