{"id":3893,"date":"2026-08-11T15:47:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T19:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bowdish.ca\/lab\/?p=3893"},"modified":"2026-08-11T15:47:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T19:47:24","slug":"why-humans-are-uniquely-sensitive-to-wildfire-smoke-youtube-explainer-with-dr-bowdish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bowdish.ca\/lab\/2026\/08\/11\/why-humans-are-uniquely-sensitive-to-wildfire-smoke-youtube-explainer-with-dr-bowdish\/","title":{"rendered":"Why humans are uniquely sensitive to wildfire smoke &#8211; YouTube Explainer with Dr. Bowdish"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Dr. Dawn Bowdish describes how the lab&#8217;s NSERC funded research uncovered a link between mutations that protect humans against tuberculosis but leave us susceptible to particulate air pollution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Here&#039;s why humans are uniquely sensitive to wildfire smoke\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0upxdha-F7k?start=6&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Read the story <a href=\"https:\/\/healthsci.mcmaster.ca\/why-humans-are-uniquely-sensitive-to-wildfire-smoke\/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CWe%20don't%20have%20immune,cells%20called%20macrophages%2C%20she%20explains.\">here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Based on the research below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bowdish DM, Sakamoto K, Lack NA, Hill PC, Sirugo G, Newport MJ, Gordon S, Hill AV, Vannberg FO. <a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1186\/1471-2350-14-47\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1186\/1471-2350-14-47\">Genetic variants of MARCO are associated with susceptibility to pulmonary tuberculosis in a Gambian population.<\/a> BMC Med Genet. 2013 Apr 23;14:47. doi: 10.1186\/1471-2350-14-47. PMID: 23617307; PMCID: PMC3652798.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Novakowski KE, Huynh A, Han S, Dorrington MG, Yin C, Tu Z, Pelka P, Whyte P, Guarn\u00e9 A, Sakamoto K, Bowdish DM. <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC4980223\/\">A naturally occurring transcript variant of MARCO reveals the SRCR domain is critical for function.<\/a> Immunol Cell Biol. 2016 Aug;94(7):646-55. doi: 10.1038\/icb.2016.20. Epub 2016 Feb 18. PMID: 26888252; PMCID: PMC4980223.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Novakowski KE, Yap NVL, Yin C, Sakamoto K, Heit B, Golding GB, Bowdish DME. <a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/mbe\/article\/35\/2\/440\/4642931?login=false\">Human-Specific Mutations and Positively Selected Sites in MARCO Confer Functional Changes<\/a>. Mol Biol Evol. 2018 Feb 1;35(2):440-450. doi: 10.1093\/molbev\/msx298. PMID: 29165618; PMCID: PMC5850514.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also featured in the New York Times &#8220;Air Pollution, Evolution and The Fate of Billions of Humans&#8221; by Carl Zimmer<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/01\/13\/science\/air-pollution-fires-genes.html\">https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/01\/13\/science\/air-pollution-fires-genes.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Dawn Bowdish describes how the lab&#8217;s NSERC funded research uncovered a link between mutations that protect humans against tuberculosis but leave us susceptible to particulate air pollution. Read the story here. Based on the research below: Bowdish DM, Sakamoto &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bowdish.ca\/lab\/2026\/08\/11\/why-humans-are-uniquely-sensitive-to-wildfire-smoke-youtube-explainer-with-dr-bowdish\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,85],"tags":[71,13,12,81,38],"class_list":["post-3893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-publications","tag-evolution","tag-infectious-disease","tag-macrophage","tag-media","tag-mycobacterium-tuberculosis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bowdish.ca\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bowdish.ca\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bowdish.ca\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bowdish.ca\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bowdish.ca\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bowdish.ca\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3895,"href":"https:\/\/www.bowdish.ca\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3893\/revisions\/3895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bowdish.ca\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bowdish.ca\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bowdish.ca\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bowdish.ca\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}