Elaine Fuchs, PhD

Staying youthful by preventing tissues from retaining life-long memories of past inflammatory experiences

Chronic inflammatory disorders of skin, lung and digestive tract are among the most urgent world health problems, and incidences are steadily rising as our population ages. The disorders are typified by acute local inflammation that resolves and then upon non-specific stress can recur, sometimes years later in the same sites and with heightened severity. In the quest to improve our overall health and body fitness as we age, Dr. Fuchs aims to understand how aging affects the way in which ‘tissue memories’ form and are unleashed upon stress. At the interface between our body and the outside world, the skin must confront many different stresses and provides an excellent model for her lab’s studies. Their ultimate goal is to use these lessons learned to devise ways to erase maladaptive memories that contribute to chronic disease and cancer without harming beneficial tissue memories that help repair tissues and confront pathogens.