Dawn Bowdish

Dr. Dawn Bowdish is an Associate Professor at McMaster University and a Canada Research Chair in Aging & Immunity. Dr Bowdish did her PhD at the University of British Columbia with Prof. Bob Hancock where she studied the anti-infective properties of antimicrobial peptides. This work led to a patent and the formation of a small biotech company. She did her post-doctoral work with Prof. Siamon Gordon at the University of Oxford and studied how macrophages recognize the Mycobacterium tuberculosis. She started her lab at McMaster University (Hamilton, ON) in 2009 where her team of post-doctoral fellows, undergraduate and graduate students study how macrophages recognize and destroy Streptococcus pneumoniae, the major cause of pneumonia in the elderly. Using a combination of animal models and human samples her lab has is uncovering how ageing, and age-associated inflammation affects the development of myeloid cells, which ultimately impairs monocyte and macrophage function and how the microbiota of the upper respiratory tract becomes permissive to Streptococcus pneumoniae colonization with age. She has published over 80 manuscripts, review articles and book chapters. She has won a number of early career awards including the Pfizer-ASPIRE award and the G. Jeannette Thorbecke Award from the Society of Leukocyte Biology. She has received funding from the CIHR, NSERC, ORF, NIH, the Labarge Optimal Aging Initiative and the Lung Association to understand why the elderly are susceptible to pneumonia and to develop novel preventative therapies. She sits on the Board of Directors of the Ontario Lung Association and advocates to increase research funding for lung health and advocates for a comprehensive Lung Health Action Plan for Ontario.