Dr. Stephanie Langel: Understanding Fetal Immunity

Langel has research expertise in emerging infectious viral diseases, mucosal immunity, and the protective properties of breast milk.Her laboratory focuses on defining how Immunoglobulin A (IgA) antibody-secreting cells from distant mucosal sites traffic to the mammary gland to secrete antibodies into milk and the implications for neonatal health.Additionally, her lab is assessing maternal and neonatal immunity to influenza and investigating how the emergence of avian influenza H5N1 may impact pregnant and neonatal populations.Dr. Langel earned her PhD from The Ohio State University, where she researched emerging coronaviruses.She then completed postdoctoral training at Duke University, focusing on developing strategies to enhance protective IgA in breast milk.Now leading her lab at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. Langel's research is dedicated to advancing maternal and neonatal immunity against viral infections.She is also actively mentoring undergraduate students, graduate students, postdocs, and staff scientists.Dr. Langel is also passionate about scientific communication.She cohosts the monthly podcast "Immune" alongside three other scientists, where they explore recent advancements in immunology research.You can find the show at microbe.tv/immune.Q: First, can you describe what pathology and immunology research entails?A: Sure.It can be very diverse in terms of the types of research that different faculty members do.I am in the department of pathology, but we have groups of people that do different things respective to that field.So there's immunology, there's neurodegeneration, there's maybe hardcore pathology where they're looking at like patient samples to find if it's cancer.I definitely fit in the immunology bucket.Immunology research is really meant to understand the immune response to something or in the course of a disease.My research is focused on the immune response in maternal and neonatal populations, particularly to viral infections.