Immunology Center of Georgia
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us all just how essential our immune system is to our health and wellbeing, but it also is a factor in most disease states, from heart disease and cancer to rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.
Georgia’s only public medical school is expanding its efforts in immunology to better address big questions that affect our health, an initiative which will dramatically expand research to better harness the power of the immune system to prevent and treat disease. Renowned immunologists and vascular biologists Drs. Klaus Ley and Catherine “Lynn” Hedrick from California’s La Jolla Institute for Immunology are co-directors of the new MCG Immunology Center of Georgia.
They are leading the strategic, aggressive recruitment of an additional 20 scientists with expertise in the cutting-edge immunology field. They also will be collaborating with MCG scientists already working in the field like Dr. Gang Zhou, who is working to improve the impact of immunotherapy, and Dr. David Munn, an MCG graduate, who is exploring the therapeutic potential of inhibiting a naturally occurring enzyme called IDO, which tumors exploit to protect themselves from the immune response.
Work at the new center will translate to better care for people, like monoclonal antibodies, cell-based therapies and new diagnostics, and eventually enable educating the next generation of immunologists by offering a graduate program in immunology in collaboration with The Graduate School at Augusta University.