University of Florida
Gainesville,
FL
USA
Biographical Sketch: Dr. Shannon Wallet is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Florida. She obtained her BS in Medical Technology and certification in Clinical Laboratory Sciences from North Carolina State and Duke University respectively in 1995, followed by her PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005. After her post-doctoral training at the University of Pittsburgh and a short return to UNC-CH, Dr. Wallet was recruited to the University of Florida in 2007. The major focus Dr.’s Wallet research program is dedicated to the understanding of homeostatic mechanisms which are disrupted in autoimmunity and inflammatory disease processes. She has investigated regulatory mechanisms ranging from those associated with the adaptive immune response [regulatory T cells and dendritic cells] and innate immune responses [monocytes, macrophages and neutrophils] to those associated with mucosal homeostasis [epithelial cell immune responses]. She spent her formal training deciphering the lack of regulatory responses in type 1 diabetes (T1D) using the non-obese diabetic (NOD) mouse model, developing therapies to improve this phenomenon, and finally evaluating mechanisms of therapeutic efficacy (or lack thereof). In recent years, she has focused her research on the role of mucosal epithelial cells in innate immune responses and how these non-traditional innate mediators contribute to immune tolerance and systemic immunity.
Papers:
W.44
Dysregulated Gastrointestinal Innate Immune Function in Human Type 1 Diabetes