Dr. Hollie Hale-Donze, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
Louisiana State University
Phone: 225-578-4053
Email: hhaled1@lsu.edu

Institutional Webpage
Recent Publications

Education:

PhD, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1997

Research Interests:

The focus of my research is defining the intricate chemokine pathways involved in the recruitment of leukocytes into areas of microbial infections. While the information on individual chemokines and chemoattractants is growing, little attention has been placed on the interplay of multiple chemokines. A myriad of cytokines and chemokines are produced by macrophages as part of the first line of immune defense to combat pathogens and to recruit new leukocytes into areas under siege. For certain virulent pathogens or in immunocompromised individuals, these defenses can be altered to turn the macrophage's cellular machinery into factories of pathogen production. Understanding these mechanisms of invasion/evasion is critical in developing treatment to eliminate pathogens without exacerbating the infection. A key question in this area remains: while many chemokines are produced by macrophages in response to infection, which ones are specifically responsible for the recruitment of other immune cells for a particular infection? My planned research directives are centered on elucidating this answer including taking approaches to understanding these events such as the kinetics of infection, receptor utilization, signaling events, chemokine and cytokine production by the infected host cells, and response events by the uninfected cells.