Episode 172: Kevin Tracey on neuro-immunology and the treatment of inflammatory diseases

Few people know as much about inflammation and neuroscience as Dr. Kevin Tracey does.

In this episode of STEM-Talk, we learn much from Tracey, who was the first to identify the inflammatory reflex, a physiological mechanism that regulates the body’s immune response to injury and invasion.

He is a neurosurgeon, a pioneer in bioelectrical medicine and president and CEO of the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research in Manhasset, N.Y. The conversation in this episode covers a career spent working on “producing tomorrow’s cures today” in the treatment of inflammatory diseases, including:

• How the death of his mother from a brain tumor when Tracey was 5 years old ultimately influenced his scientific journey.

• How the death of a young patient of his from sepsis further fueled his path, leading him to the insight that “good science begins with hard questions,” as Tracey shared in a TedTalk.

•  The molecular mechanisms of inflammation and the use of vagus nerve stimulation to treat it.

• His 1987 discovery of tumor necrosis factor (TNF), which contributed to a new class of drugs for inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

• Another discovery that allowed him and his colleagues to merge neuroscience and immunology.

• His work on “The Inflammatory Reflex”, which emphasized the basic neural pathway that reflexively monitors and adjusts the inflammatory response.

• A sketch he drew while having lunch, which laid out how treating inflammatory diseases using a bioelectronic device might be possible.

• What advances in bioelectronic medicine he envisions in the next decade, and much more.

For full show notes, visit https://www.ihmc.us/stemtalk/episode-...