Rachel Kinsella, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Emory Vaccine Center of Emory University. She earned her PhD at the University of Alberta, studying mechanisms of Acinetobacter pathogenesis. Her post-dotoral research at Washington University in St. Louis was on the inflammatory response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Throughout her career, she has explored how respiratory bacterial pathogens manipulate the host-immune response to cause disease
Why did you join AAI?
I joined AAI to expand my network and support my own continual education about immunology.
What are your current research interests?
My research focuses on early innate immune responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis and non-tuberculous mycobacterial infection with a focus on neutrophils. We are dissecting how neutrophil effector functions are regulated, how neutrophil fate decisions are made and the impact neutrophils have on infection control as well as tissue injury and repair in the lung.
What’s one thing you wish everyone understood about immunology?
One thing that has always fascinated me about immunology is that the immune system does far more than protect us from infection. It plays a fundamental role in maintaining tissue health and homeostasis, relying on an intricate network of regulatory mechanisms to balance protective immune responses with the need to prevent excessive inflammation and tissue damage.
