Speaker

Dr. Thirumala-Devi Kanneganti is a world-leading expert in innate immunity, inflammation, and inflammatory cell death. She is currently Director of the Center of Excellence for Innate Immunity and Inflammation, and a Member, Vice Chair, and Rose Marie Thomas Endowed Chair in Immunology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. As a founding member of the inflammasome field, her work defined critical roles for NLRP3 and inflammasomes across infection, neuroinflammation, cancer,
and metabolic diseases. She also pioneered the concept of PANoptosis and identified innate immune sensors driving it (ZBP1, NLRP3, AIM2, RIPK1, NLRC5, NLRP12). She further elucidated key regulatory mechanisms of IL-1α and IL-1β in
driving inflammation, and defined TNF-IFN-γ synergism underlying "cytokine storm." Her discoveries spanning innate sensors, inflammasomes, PANoptosomes, PANoptosis, and mitoxyperilysis across infection, autoinflammation, and cancer have defined innate immune cell death mechanisms and paved the way for
therapeutics.

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