Michael Dee Gunn

Dr. Gunn is a Professor of Medicine and Immunology at Duke University Medical Center. He received his MD from Southwestern Medical School and completed his residency at Parkland Memorial Hospital and his Clinical Cardiology training at UCSF. Dr. Gunn then joined the lab of Dr. Lewis T. (Rusty) Williams at UCSF, where he developed an interest in inflammatory aspects of atherosclerotic disease and began to investigate chemokines. He first studied the monocyte chemoattractant MCP-1 but soon became interested in novel chemokines. He identified the first two members of a new class of chemokines, the lymphoid chemokines, which mediate the migration of white blood cells to and within lymphoid organs. This discovery led him to the field of immunology, which has remained the focus of his research. After completing his postdoctoral training in 1999, Dr. Gunn moved to Duke University as an Assistant Professor of Medicine.

Since then, Dr. Gunn’s work has focused on determining how dendritic cells and other myeloid cells regulate immune responses and contribute to disease pathogenesis. His discoveries include the first two constitutive chemokines, CCL21 and CXCL13, murine plasmacytoid dendritic cells, the cells that mediate influenza-induced pulmonary immune pathology, the requirement of monocytes for the development of Th1 immune responses, and the lung macrophage population that stimulates the development of pulmonary hypertension. Dr. Gunn has a demonstrated record of performing high-impact science and developing disruptive technologies.