Julie Ledford
Associate Professor, Cellular and Molecular Medicine
Bioscience Research Laboratory, room 453
Education:
- B.S., University of Georgia
- Ph.D, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Postdoctoral training, Duke University
Dr. Ledford’s current work in the area of pulmonary surfactant immunobiology combines her knowledge of mouse genetics, pulmonary disease models and immune function regulation and focuses on understanding the role of Surfactant Protein-A (SP-A) and how it regulates signaling pathways within various immune cell populations. Specifically, she is interested in how SP-A regulates degranulation, either directly or indirectly, of two important cell types in asthma: mast cells and eosinophils. More recently, Dr. Ledford’s research has focused on understanding how genetic variation within human SP-A2 alters functionality of the protein in relation to eosinophil activities and how this translates to characteristics observed in human asthma.
Environmental research interests - lung function, respiratory exposures, smoke inhalation, and sex differences in respiratory health