M. Karen Newell-Rogers, PhD

Education and Training

• University of Texas, BS, Microbiology, 1973
• University of Colorado Health Science Center, PhD, Microbiology/Immunology, 1987
• McGill University, Postdoctoral, Immunology, 1991
• National Jewish Center and UCHSC, Postdoctoral, Immunology, 1994

Research Interests

• Dr. Newell's research broadly involves the following areas of study: the first, studies of how an individual's immune response genes contribute to infectious and post-infectious chronic inflammatory syndromes, including Post-Traumatic Brain Injury Syndromes, Lyme Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, preeclampsia, and virally-induced post-infectious autoimmune syndromes. Most recently, her collaborative work with Dr. Carl Tong, a practicing cardiologist and researcher has revealed a link between an immune response and the progression of heart failure. A second avenue of research involves studies of how a cell's energy demands and energy strategy impacts the ability of the cell to be recognized by the immune system. By targeting metabolic disruption in tumor cells, she and her group have explored how to limit the cells' options for energy, rendering them susceptible to cell death and/or "recognizable" by the immune system. A major arm of her research utilizes a peptide replacement strategy to reverse the effects of chronic inflammatory disease, such as HIV/AIDS, MS, Lyme and Crohn's disease. Her work was honored in January 2011 when she was nominated as a 2011 TAMEST innovator protégé, and again in April 2011, when she received the 2011 Hope Award from the Time for Lyme Foundation, Stamford, Connecticut. A large donation to her cancer work lead to a Phase I clinical trial based at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center, San Antonio, under the clinical direction of Dr. Tyler Curiel.
• Many of the technologies that have resulted from her research have been licensed to biotechnologies companies and are in various stages of commercialization.