Professor Sally Wenzel
Chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Rachel Carson Chair of Environmental Health, Director of the University of Pittsburgh Asthma Institute
Speaker's biography
Professor Wenzel completed her MD degree at the University of Florida. She spent 19 years at National Jewish and the University of Colorado before moving to the University of Pittsburgh. She is the recipient of many awards, including the Elizabeth Rich Award, for her role in promoting women in science; the American Thoracic Society (ATS) Award for Scientific Achievement; the ATS Foundation Breathing for Life Award; and the European Respiratory Society President’s Award. She is a member of the American Association of Physicians, has published over 300 papers and reviews, and is currently an Associate Editor for Physiological Reviews.
Her research interests include asthma and particularly severe asthma. She was one of the leaders in the concept that asthma is a heterogeneous disease, consisting of numerous different phenotypes, influenced by both environmental and genetic factors. She has applied this understanding to integrating studies of oxidative stress, as seen in many asthmatic airways, with cell survival and death, inflammation, environmental exposures and worsening disease severity. She is the acting director of the University of Pittsburgh Asthma and Environmental Lung Health Institute, which is expanding its mission into the impact of regional environmental threats into the lives of patients with lung disease. She relies primarily on the study of human beings with disease, including collection of many samples from asthmatic patient lungs for advanced ‘omic based approaches.