Publication: Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells in Aged Humans

Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells in Aged Humans

Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) are immature myeloid cells whose
immunosuppressive activities contribute to cancer and other diseases. MDSCs
appear to increase with age, and this presumably contributes to immunosuppression
and the increased incidence of certain diseases. Why MDSCs increase with
age is not entirely clear. Herein we present evidence that MDSC expansion is due
in part to age-related changes in hematopoiesis, including the acquisition of
mutations that favor myelopoiesis, which are compounded by changes in the
aging microenvironment that favor the production of MDSCs.

Congratulations to Sara Makaremi (PhD candidate) for winning the Gerald T Simon Award for her microscopy!

Congratulations Sara for winning the Gerald T Simons award for her presentation at the Microscopical Society of Canada and Microscopical Society of America (M&M2018) in Baltimore.

To read her award winning abstract, click here.

 

Congratulations to Dessi Loukov on successfully defending her PhD!

Congratulations to the newly minted Dr. Loukov on successfully defending her thesis entitled “Age-Associated Inflammation impairs Myeloid Development and Monocyte & Macrophage Function”!

The newly minted Dr. Loukov drinks from the chalice.

Dessi celebrates her thesis defence with one of her mentors Dr. Mark McDermott.

Two doctors.

Alumnus Update: Melissa Ling, Bowdish lab undergraduate, accepted to Yale University.

Congratulations to Melissa Ling, a former Bowdish lab undergraduate thesis student who was accepted to Yale University’s Masters of Medical Science in the Physician Associate Program. This prestigious program has a 3.6% acceptance rate so we are very proud of her.

Best of luck Melissa!

Pictured here in her Bowdish lab days.

The Bowdish lab welcomes summer students Danny, Mina, Joseph and Melodie and congratulates them on their scholarship successes.

The Bowdish lab is pleased to welcome a recent biochemistry graduate and IIDR summer scholarship winner, Joseph Chon, Mina Sadeghi a MIRA (McMaster Institute for Research on Aging) summer student,  Danny Ma a MIRA and NSERC-USRA winner and Melodie Kim, a BHSc summer studentship recipient. We’re thrilled to have such a talented group of students working with us this summer.

Summer students 2018, all of whom have summer studentships! (L-R) Joseph Chon (IIDR), Mina Sadeghi (MIRA), and Danny Ma (NSERC-USRA, MIRA) and not pictured Melodie Kim (BHSc). Welcome!

Congrats to high school student Anika Gupta as she heads off to the international science fair!

The Bowdish lab was very proud to host Anika Gupta, a high school student, for her Bay Area Science and Engineering Fair (BASEF) project.

Her project was entitled “Quantifying Lung Macrophages to Understand Increased Susceptibility to Bacterial Pneumonia with Age.”

Anita won the Dr. Doyle Biology Award for the best Biology project, a Gold merit award as well as the Pinnacle Award for the Third Best in Fair and a sponsored Trip Award to compete in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in May!

Way to go Anika!

Anika Gupta receiving the third place “ArcelorMittal Dofasco Pinnacle Best-in-Fair” award.

See her featured in the Hamilton news here.

Dr. Bowdish gives a lecture for kids “Who’s got more cooties – boys or girls?”

Dr. Bowdish explains what cooties are, how the microbes that live on and in us can be friends and foes and describes how differences in infections and health between boys and girls, men and women are sometimes due to biology and sometimes due to behaviour.

Read the article summarizing the event here.

To see Dr. Bowdish put on a macrophage cape and teach the school kids the difference between a commensal, a pathobiont and a pathogen by dressing up their teachers, watch here…..

Children wrote down questions they had during the lecture and got answers back to them the next day. Had to break out the dictionary to find the etiology of the word “cooties”.