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Revision as of 19:56, 7 March 2012
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Kevin J. Tracey | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 10, 1957 |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Boston College, Boston University, Cornell University Medical Center |
| Occupation | Scientist |
| Employer | Feinstein Institute for Medical Research |
| Known for | Medical Research |
| Website | [1] |
Kevin J. Tracey, a scientist and inventor, was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana on 10 December 1957. He is President of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and Professor and President of the Elmezzi Graduate School of Molecular Medicine[1] in Manhasset, New York.
Education
Kevin J. Tracey received his B.S. in Chemistry from Boston College in 1979 and his M.D. from Boston University in 1983. From 1983 to 1992 he trained in neurosurgery at the New York Hospital/Cornell University[2] under Prof. Russel Patterson. During this time he was also a guest investigator at Rockefeller University.
Academic appointments
In 1992, Tracey moved to the North Shore-LIJ Health System,[3] in Manhasset, New York, where he practiced neurosurgery and established the Laboratory of Biomedical Science. In 2005 he was appointed President of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, and Professor and President of the Elmezzi Graduate School of Molecular Medicine[1] in Manhasset, New York. In 2008 ]North Shore LIJ partnered with Hofstra University to establish a new School of Medicine at Hofstra University.[4]
Principal scientific contributions
Tracey studies the molecular basis of inflammation, and mechanisms of neural signaling that control immune responses.[5] In the early 1980s, he and colleagues described the direct inflammatory activity of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF).[6] This was followed by the first report that monoclonal antibodies against TNF can be effectively used as a therapeutic agent.[7] As confirmed by an expanding field of research, TNF is a mediator of septic shock, but not sepsis. This prompted Tracey to search for another putative mediator of sepsis, culminating in 1999 by the identification of HMGB1, a protein previously known as a DNA-binding transcription factor, as an inflammatory mediator and drug target.[8]
Reasoning that evolution conferred protective mechanisms to prevent the unrestrained release of TNF and HMGB1, and that the nervous system provides crucial homeostatic control on oragn phsyiology, Tracey proposed a mechanism for the neural control of TNF and HMGB1. Termed the "Inflammatory reflex",[9] action potentials carried in the vagus nerve regulate cytokine release and innate immunity. The neurophysiological mechanism is that action potentials transmitted in the vagus nerve activate the release of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter, that interacts with alpha-7 nicotinic receptors expressed on the cell surface of macrophages that produce TNF and other cytokines.[10] The interaction of acetylcholine with alpha-7 nicotinic receptors prevents cytokine release by downregulating nuclear activation of NFkB. Stimulating the vagus nerve signals inhibits potentially damaging cytokine responses, and protect against organ damage caused by unregulated or excessive cytokine release. In 2011 he and his colleagues discovered a T cell subset that secretes acetylcholine in the spleen when activated by signals arising in the vagus nerve.[11] These cells are regulated by incoming neurotransmission arising in the brain stem, and respond by producing the terminal neurotransmitter required to complete the Inflammatory Reflex. The neural circuit may be exploited to therapeutic advantage, because application of electrodes to stimulate the vagus nerve (vagus nerve stimulation) protects against damaging inflammation in experimental arthritis, colitis, ischemia, myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, and other conditions.[12] The importance of the inflammatory reflex in controlling inflammation establishes the concept that the immune system does not function autonomously, but rather its output is coordinated by physiological units of reflex action.[13]
Awards and honors
- Honorary doctorate from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, 2009
- Association of American Physicians, 2009
- DeWitt Stetten lectureship National Institutes of Health, 2007
- Annual Clinical Science Lectureship Karolinska Institute, 2002
- Invited lectureships at Harvard, Yale, The Rockefeller University, The Scripps Institute and the University of Texas Southwestern
- Co-chair of the first international scientific congress addressing "The Inflammatory Reflex", a Nobel Symposium of the Karolinska Institute, 2004
- Co-chair of the "First HMGB1 Cytokine World Congress" in Saltsjöbaden, Sweden, in 2003
- Editor in Chief: Molecular Medicine, and Advisory Editor: Journal of Experimental Medicine
- American Society of Clinical Investigation (2001)
- Highly Cited Researcher in Immunology.[14]
Book
Tracey's book Fatal Sequence: The Killer Within, recounts the course of a young patient with sepsis, a case that influenced Tracey's research into the molecular basis of septic shock, and severe sepsis.[15][16]
Multimedia
- "Physiology and Immunology of the Cholinergic Anti-Inflammatory Pathway" Stetten Lecture Videocast, October 24, 2007
- "Nervous System/Immune System Connection" Stetten Podcast Interview, November 2, 2007
- "The Inflammatory Reflex" Centricity Series Video Talk, December 17, 2007
- NIGMS, September 2010.
References
- ^ a b "Elmezzi Graduate School".
- ^ "Cornell Neurological Surgery Alumni".
- ^ "North Shore-LIJ Health System".
- ^ "Hofstra North Shore LIJ School of Medicine at Hofstra University".
- ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1038/nri2566, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with
|doi=10.1038/nri2566instead. - ^ Tracey K.J. et al. "Shock and tissue injury induced by recombinant human cachectin". Science. 1986 Oct 24;234(4775):470-4. PMID 3764421
- ^ Tracey K.J., Fong Y, Hesse DG, Manogue KR, Lee AT, Kuo GC, Lowry SF, Cerami A. "Anti-cachectin/TNF monoclonal antibodies prevent septic shock during lethal bacteraemia". Nature. 1987 Dec 17-23;330(6149):662-4. PMID 3317066
- ^ Wang H, et al. "HMG-1 as a late mediator of endotoxin lethality in mice". Science. 1999 Jul 9;285(5425):248-51. PMID 10398600
- ^ Tracey K.J. "The inflammatory reflex". Nature. 2002 Dec 19-26;420(6917):853-9. Review. PMID 12490958
- ^ Wang H, et al. "Nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha7 subunit is an essential regulator of inflammation". Nature. 2003 Jan 23;421(6921):384-8. Epub 2002 Dec 22. PMID 12508119
- ^ Mauricio Rosas-Ballina, Peder S. Olofsson at al. "Acetylcholine-Synthesizing T Cells Relay Neural Signals in a Vagus Nerve Circuit." Science. 2011 Oct 7;334(6052):98-101. PMID 21921156
- ^ Tracey K.J. "Physiology and immunology of the cholinergic antiinflammatory pathway". J Clin Invest. 2007 Feb;117(2):289-96. Review. PMID 17273548; PMC 1783813
- ^ Tracey K.J. "Reflex control of immunity". Nat Rev Immunol. 2009 Jun;9(6):418-28.Review. PMID 19461672
- ^ "ISI Highly Cited Researchers".
- ^ "For Janice - Legacy of a Short Life".
- ^ Tracey, K. J. (2005). Fatal Sequence: The Killer Within. New York: Dana Press. ISBN 978-1932594065.
External links
- at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
- at Albert Einstein College of Medicine
- The Dana Foundation
- Scientific Publications – All publications of articles by Kevin J. Tracey listed in PubMed