Paul Kirkham

Dr Paul Kirkham completed his first degree in Biochemistry at Leeds University. He then went on to receive a PhD in Biochemistry from Surrey University in 1989. Between 1989 and 1998 he joined the laboratories of Dr Michael Parkhouse as a postdoctoral staff scientist, working on mechanisms of B and T cell activation in the Department of Immunology at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research before moving to the BBSRC Institute for Animal Health. In 1998 he moved into industry and joined Novartis, where as a Lab Head he led a team undertaking drug discovery into respiratory diseases. He returned to academia in 2008 after being awarded a Royal Society Industry Fellowship and joined the staff at the National Heart and Lung Institute within Imperial College London, where he currently remains as a Senior Fellow. His research interests focus on unravelling the role oxidative stress plays in modulating cellular and immune responses in disease pathogenesis, particularly in relation to respiratory disease.

Dennis D. Taub

Dr. Taub has wide interests in many areas of biology and medicine, both basic and clinical. His current researches focus on chemokine and inflammatory biology, age-associated changes in immune function and inflammation, the role of cholesterol and lipid rafts in T lymphocyte signaling and trafficking, novel connections between the immune and endocrine systems, the molecular and biological mechanisms of age-associated thymic involution and the role of homocysteine in immunoregulation. He has published over 240 articles as an author or co-author in peer-reviewed journals, reviews and book chapters and has been cited well over 10,000 times.

Dr. Dennis D. Taub received his Ph.D. from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia in 1991. He subsequently entered the laboratory of Dr. Joost J. Oppenheim as a staff fellow at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Maryland. From 1994-1997, he headed the vaccine monitoring laboratory within the Clinical Services Program at the National Cancer Institute. In early 1997, he moved to the National Institute on Aging and started the Laboratory of Immunology as its Chief as well as the Chief of Clinical Immunology Section from 1997-2010. Dr. Taub also served as the Director of Clinical Core Laboratory and the NIA Bio-Repository, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health from during this time period. He now is the Senior Investigator & Chief, Clinical Immunology Section, Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Immunology at the National Institute on Aging, Baltimore MD.