Woodfolk, Judith A.
Primary Appointment
Professor, Medicine: Asthma, Allergy and Immunology
Education
- MBChB, Medicine, Sheffield University
- PhD, Microbiology, University of Virginia
Contact Information
PO Box 801355
MR-4, 5061
Telephone: 434-924-1293 / 434-982-3958
Fax: 434-924-1251
Email: jaw4m@Virginia.EDU
Research Disciplines
Immunology, Infectious Diseases/Biodefense, Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Translational Science
Research Interests
The immune response to common cold and allergens in health and disease.
Research Description
Research in my lab focuses on advancing knowledge of how the human immune system responds to environmental triggers that worsen lung disease. The prevalence of asthma has risen dramatically in the last few decades. Exposure to rhinovirus, the major cause of common cold, is an important risk factor for acute asthma episodes. A major goal of my lab's work is to understand how the adaptive immune response to rhinovirus may protect or harm, depending on the clinical status of the patient. More recently, we have expanded our work to study the immune response in patients with COVID-19, and in those who recover from severe disease.
Current projects include: (1) Understanding mechanisms of cross-protective immunity to human rhinovirus in an experimental human infection model; (2) Defining pathogenic T cell responses to rhinovirus in asthma (3) Identifying immune determinants of severe outcomes in COVID-19 patients, including those that link to chronic lung damage.
Ongoing work uses novel tools and state-of-the-art technologies to provide a systems biology perspective of immune activation in humans. Our approach involves a high degree of collaboration with clinical experts in asthma, pulmonary and critical care medicine, and infectious diseases, as well as with basic scientists in virology, biochemistry, transcriptomics, and single-cell analytics.