Kymberly Gowdy
Associate Professor
Internal Medicine
Academic information
- Department: Internal Medicine
Research interests
- Environmental exposures
- Cardiovascular disease pathogenesis
About
Biography
I am an Associate Professor at The Ohio State University (OSU), where I lead a research program in the Department of Internal Medicine focused on how air pollutants influence chronic lung diseases, both infectious and inflammatory. My research has resulted in more than 50 publications—many coauthored with my trainees—and has been supported by various extramural and intramural grants. I serve as an ad‑hoc reviewer for multiple study sections (American Thoracic Society, American Heart Association) and am a standing member of the SIEE NIH study section. I am also active in journal peer review, serving as Associate Editor for Toxicological Sciences and on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Immunology, American Journal of Physiology—Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Life Sciences, and Frontiers in Immunology. In addition to my research career, I am passionate about mentoring, career development, and teaching the next generation of toxicologists. In 2016, I started the Eastern North Carolina Chapter of Graduate Women in Science, which now has more than 100 members. I have mentored numerous research faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduates, and I currently contribute to the biomedical and toxicology curriculum at OSU for graduate and public health students. Lastly, I currently serve as Vice President of the Society of Toxicology’s Inhalation and Respiratory Specialty Section.
Our lungs are constantly challenged by environmental exposures such as air pollutants, particulate matter, noxious gases, allergens, viruses, and bacteria. The central focus of my research is to explore and identify novel mechanisms by which these environmental exposures can lead to lung and cardiovascular disease pathogenesis. I am also deeply interested in understanding how environmental exposures alter the pulmonary immune response, making the lungs more susceptible to infection. Of particular interest to me is determining the role of scavenger receptors in preventing infectious and inflammatory lung diseases.
My research is currently funded by the National Institutes of Health, and I collaborate with investigators at The Ohio State University, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Duke University, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), the University of North Carolina, and Vanderbilt University to collectively understand the health risks associated with environmental exposures. Through these efforts, my work provides fundamental insights from both basic and translational models of lung disease.
Credentials
Education
- PhD
- North Carolina State University, Raleigh, United States of America
Research
Research interests
- Environmental exposures
- Cardiovascular disease pathogenesis
Current research
- Uncovering molecular mechanisms by which air pollution increases susceptibility to pulmonary infections.
- Understanding the influence of lipid mediators on the pulmonary inflammatory response following air pollution exposure.
- Evaluating how dietary fatty acids mitigate/influence environmental lung diseases.
Active funding
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1R01ES031378-01
Title: Dietary DHA mitigates ozone induced pulmonary inflammationPrincipal Investigator: Kymberly Gowdy, PhD
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1R01ES028829-01A1
Title: Novel role for CD163 in ozone induced alterations of pulmonary immunityPrincipal Investigator: Kymberly Gowdy, PhD