A physician-scientist and towering figure of modern immunology will present a Distinguished Dean's Lecture at the Wayne State University School of Medicine on Aug. 17.
Sing Sing Way, M.D., Ph.D. is the Pauline and Lawson Reed Professor and Chair of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and Cincinnati Children's Hospital.
He will present "Immunological shifts during pregnancy and after parturition" from noon to 1:15 p.m. in Room 3125 of Scott Hall.
Dr. Way is a graduate of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he completed his doctoral degree in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, performed his residency and training in pediatrics at the University of California - San Francisco and his infectious diseases training at the University of Washington. Dr. Way has had a meteoric rise in immunology and has been the recipient of a Basil O'Connor Award from the March of Dimes and the National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Scholar.
The subject of his presentation is one of the major riddles in biology: How does a mother tolerate the semi-allograft. Dr. Way will also address the question of the importance of microchimeric maternal cells.
Key contributions of Dr. Way's laboratory include:
• "Cross-generational reproductive fitness enforced by microchimeric maternal cells" (Cell, 2015)
• "Pregnancy imprints regulatory memory that sustains anergy to fetal antigen" (Nature, 2012)
• "CXCR3 blockage protects against Listeria monocytogenes infection-induced fetal wastage" (Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2015)
• "Regulatory T cell: new keys for further unlocking the enigma of fetal tolerance and pregnancy complications" (Journal of Immunology, 2014)
• "Listeria monocytogenes cytoplasmic entry induces fetal wastage by disrupting maternal Foxp3+ regulatory T cell-sustained fetal tolerance" (PLoS Pathogens, 2012)
Dr. Way's presentation is open to faculty, students and staff of the School of Medicine.
For additional information, contact Jennifer Turpin at jturpin@med.wayne.edu.