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Kari Nadeau | |
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Nationality | American |
Alma mater |
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Known for | Environmental Health & Disease |
Scientific career | |
Fields |
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Institutions | Harvard University Stanford University |
Thesis | Biochemical studies on protein folding chaperones : Hsp90 and cyclophilin ; and, On trypanosomal enzymes : trypanothione and glutationylspermidine synthetases (1995) |
Doctoral advisor | Christopher T. Walsh |
Kari C. Nadeau is the Chair of the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard School of Public Health and John Rock Professor of Climate and Population Studies. [1] She is also adjunct professor at Stanford University in the Department of Pediatrics. [2] She practices Allergy, Asthma, Immunology in children and adults as a physician, and has published over 400 papers. [3] Her team focuses on quantifying health outcomes of solutions as they pertain to air pollution mitigation and adaptation at the local, regional, country, and global levels. Dr. Nadeau, with a team of individuals and patients and families, has been able to help major progress and impact in the clinical fields of exposomics, immunology, infection, asthma, and allergy. Dr. Nadeau is a member of the National Academy of Medicine [4] and the U.S. EPA Children’s Health Protection Committee. [5]
For more than 30 years, she has devoted herself to understanding how environmental and genetic factors affect the risk of developing human disease. Her laboratory has been studying pollution effects on children and adults. Many of the health issues involving individuals and the public are increasing because of air pollution and extreme weather conditions. She oversees a team working with a multidisciplinary group of community leaders, engineers, scientists, lawyers, and policy makers. Dr. Nadeau was appointed as a member of the U.S. Federal Wildfire Commission in 2022. [6]
Dr. Nadeau works with other organizations and institutes across the world. She works with the WHO on a scoping review and report for health ministers and policy makers on wildland fires and/or air pollution: how to mitigate, adapt, and follow UN SDG’s to create resiliency and co-benefits in communities, especially LMICs.
Dr. Nadeau and her team perform research in the prevention and therapy of disease. She also launched four biotech companies, [7] [8] [9] and founded the Climate Change and Health Equity Task Force and started the Sustainability Health Seed Grant initiative and Climate Change and Health Fellowship program. [10] She has served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the U.S. EPA.
She works as a member of the UNEA through Harvard to work on environmental health and planetary health governance and policy. [11] She is also a member of the Center for the Early Development of the Child scientific committee at Harvard. [12]
Dr. Nadeau is a Faculty Associate at The Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability and works with the Harvard Global Health Initiative and with the FXB center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. She was the interim director of the Harvard Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment until October 2024, when she was succeeded by Mary Rice. [13] Through these programs Dr. Nadeau works directly with Environmental Justice, global, regional, and local communities.
Her groundbreaking research has pioneered the field of allergies, asthma, and immunology, specifically in food allergies, pollution-induced asthma, and COVID-19. Dr. Nadeau’s studies have demonstrated that exposures to water and air pollution can modify the DNA of all ages of individuals and can lead to respiratory, allergic, and immune disorders. [14]
After graduating from Haverford College with a degree in biology, [15] Nadeau attended Harvard Medical School via the Medical Scientist Training Program (NIH), and received a PhD in biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology and an MD in 1995. She then started an internship and residency in pediatrics. From 1998 to 2002, she worked in the field of biopharmaceuticals and led clinical research to obtain FDA approval for two biologics in the field of Autoimmunity and Oncology, respectively. From 2003 to 2006, Nadeau was a pediatric resident and a fellow in Asthma, Allergy, and Immunology. She also did a postdoctoral fellowship in human immune tolerance mechanisms in asthma and allergy. [16] She received a certificate in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School in 2022.
In 2006, Nadeau was appointed to the Stanford University School of Medicine with appointments in Pediatrics and Otolaryngology. In 2016 she was named the Naddisy Foundation Professor of Pediatric Food Allergy, Immunology and Asthma endowed professorship under the Naddisy Family Foundation. [17] Nadeau has served as a reviewer for NIH Study Sections, and a member of the American Lung Association Medical Board, CA. She serves on the Environmental Health Policy committee for the American Thoracic Society and is a Fellow in the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology and is a member of ASCI (American Society of Clinical Investigation). [18] Her laboratory focuses on the study of immunological mechanisms involved in the cause, diagnosis, and therapy for allergy and asthma. [19] In December, 2014 Sean Parker donated $24 million to Stanford to establish the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy Research at Stanford University, [20] with Nadeau as the director. [21] [22]
In September 2020, Dr. Kari Nadeau published The End of Food Allergy: The First Program To Prevent and Reverse a 21st Century Epidemic with co-author Sloan Barnett. [23]
As of January 2023, Nadeau is Chair of the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. [24]
Translational work (through conducting novel and innovative clinical studies to induce tolerance through immunotherapy) on Treg function and epigenetic changes. [25] [26] [27] This research led to novel findings on markers of immune tolerance in clinical trial using food oral immunotherapy for near fatal food allergies. Dr. Nadeau and her team study how immune cells respond to therapy using human blood and organoids.
Dr. Nadeau oversees collaborative teams examining plasma, cellular, and epigenetic markers that are affected by pollution in children, adolescents, and adults. Using well characterized cohorts across the world (for acute pollution exposure—i.e. wildfire) and in the Central Valley of California (for chronic exposure—i.e. Fresno is one of the highest ranked cities in the country for PM2.5 air pollution), Dr. Nadeau and her team have been able to perform innovative and impactful research that has helped shape public policy towards mitigating pollution and its effects on the public, (especially those at risk populations (like children) and the underserved (like Hispanic populations in the Central Valley of California). [28] [29] [30] [31]
Working with a team of dedicated multidisciplinary experts, Dr. Nadeau focuses on quantifying the health outcomes of solutions that have been implemented to address climate change. For example, her team studies whether certain diseases are lessened by switching from diesel to electric vehicles, from gas to electric stoves, from no to cooling devices, or from no biodiversity to greening a local area. She focuses her research on those communities that are inequitably exposed to climate change and extreme weather. [32] [33] [34] [35] [36]
Nadeau and her work have made a number of media appearances supporting food allergy awareness and research:
Allergies, also known as allergic diseases, are various conditions caused by hypersensitivity of the immune system to typically harmless substances in the environment. These diseases include hay fever, food allergies, atopic dermatitis, allergic asthma, and anaphylaxis. Symptoms may include red eyes, an itchy rash, sneezing, coughing, a runny nose, shortness of breath, or swelling. Note that food intolerances and food poisoning are separate conditions.
Anaphylaxis is a serious, potentially fatal allergic reaction and medical emergency that is rapid in onset and requires immediate medical attention regardless of the use of emergency medication on site. It typically causes more than one of the following: an itchy rash, throat closing due to swelling that can obstruct or stop breathing; severe tongue swelling that can also interfere with or stop breathing; shortness of breath, vomiting, lightheadedness, loss of consciousness, low blood pressure, and medical shock. These symptoms typically start in minutes to hours and then increase very rapidly to life-threatening levels. Urgent medical treatment is required to prevent serious harm and death, even if the patient has used an epipen or has taken other medications in response, and even if symptoms appear to be improving.
Rhinitis, also known as coryza, is irritation and inflammation of the mucous membrane inside the nose. Common symptoms are a stuffy nose, runny nose, sneezing, and post-nasal drip.
Allergen immunotherapy, also known as desensitization or hypo-sensitization, is a medical treatment for environmental allergies and asthma. Immunotherapy involves exposing people to larger and larger amounts of allergens in an attempt to change the immune system's response.
Nambudripad's Allergy Elimination Techniques (NAET) is a form of alternative medicine which proponents claim can treat allergies and related disorders. The techniques were devised by Devi Nambudripad, a California-based chiropractor and acupuncturist, in 1983, drawing on a combination of ideas from applied kinesiology, acupuncture, acupressure, nutritional management, and chiropractic methods.
The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI) is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering research on allergy and immunology. It is one of three official journals of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology. The journal was established in 1929 as the Journal of Allergy and obtained its current name in 1971. The name change was purportedly related to a change in the attitude among physicians about the breadth of applicability of the term "allergy". The journal has been published under the Mosby imprint since its inception.
The Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF) was founded in 1988 as an institution of the foundation Schweizerisches Forschungsinstitut für Hochgebirgsklima und Medizin SFI in Davos, Switzerland. SIAF is located at the Medicine Campus Davos, which opened in 2019. SIAF has been an affiliated institute of the University of Zurich since 1995.
Founded in 1943, the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) is a professional medical membership organization of more than 7,000 allergists/immunologists and related professionals around the world with advanced training and experience in allergy, asthma and other immunologic diseases. The Academy is dedicated to the advancement of the knowledge and practice of allergy, asthma and immunology for optimal patient care.
Thomas Alexander Evelyn Platts-Mills, FRS, son of British member of parliament and barrister John Platts-Mills, is a British allergy researcher and director of the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
Asthma is a common pulmonary condition defined by chronic inflammation of respiratory tubes, tightening of respiratory smooth muscle, and episodes of bronchoconstriction. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 1 in 11 children and 1 in 12 adults have asthma in the United States of America. According to the World Health Organization, asthma affects 235 million people worldwide. There are two major categories of asthma: allergic and non-allergic. The focus of this article will be allergic asthma. In both cases, bronchoconstriction is prominent.
The World Allergy Organization (WAO) is an international umbrella organization of 111 regional and national allergology and clinical immunology societies. Since the first World Allergy Congress (WAC) held in Zurich, Switzerland in 1951, there have been 29 WACs as well as a number of WAO International Science Conferences (WISC), Webinars, and Symposia. Beyond sharing research findings, these meetings also allocate funds for postgraduate programs on allergy and clinical immunology.
Gail Ina Greenberg Shapiro was an American pediatric allergist based in Seattle. She was a faculty member at the University of Washington School of Medicine. In 2001, she became the first democratically elected president of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (AAAAI).
Mariana Castells is a Spanish-American allergist who focuses on mast cell diseases, including mastocytosis, mast cell activation syndrome and hereditary alpha tryptasimia. Mastocytosis is a rare disease with limited treatment options. Castells works at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Massachusetts in the Department of Allergy, Rheumatology, and Immunology and at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. She is also a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Cezmi Akdis is a medical researcher in the field of immunology. He is director of the Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF) in Davos, Switzerland and the editor in chief of the journal Allergy.
Sally Katharine Hammond is a Professor of Environmental Health Sciences and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Her research considers the impact of pollution and passive smoking on public health. It resulted in the Federal Aviation Administration issuing a ban on smoking on aeroplanes. Hammond serves on the World Health Organization study group on Tobacco Product Regulation.
Stephen Joseph Galli is an American pathologist who researches mast cells and basophils. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, a recipient of the National Institutes of Health MERIT Award, and former co-editor of the Annual Review of Pathology: Mechanisms of Disease.
Type 2 inflammation is a pattern of immune response. Its physiological function is to defend the body against helminths, but a dysregulation of the type 2 inflammatory response has been implicated in the pathophysiology of several diseases.
Asthma triggers are factors or stimuli that provoke the exacerbation of asthma symptoms or increase the degree of airflow disruption, which can lead to an asthma attack. An asthma attack is characterized by an obstruction of the airway, hypersecretion of mucus and bronchoconstriction due to the contraction of smooth muscles around the respiratory tract. Its symptoms include a wide range of manifestations such as breathlessness, coughing, a tight chest and wheezing.
Dale T. Umetsu is an American academic physician, immunologist and pharmaceutical executive, who currently serves as clinical professor of medicine at Stanford University and clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. Previously, he served as the Prince Turki bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and as a tenured professor of pediatrics at Stanford University.