On aging, inflammation, and microbes: Three vignettes

Dawn Bowdish, PhD
Professor of Medicine 
Faculty of Health Sciences,
McMaster University

Executive Director 
Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health
Hamilton, ON, Canada

This conference is hosted by Emilia Liana Falcone, MD, PhD. This conference is part of the 2025-2026 IRCM conference calendar.

About this conference
Aging does not proceed at the same pace for everyone. Stressors in early life or before we are born influence how well we age. Using a preclinical model of early life adversity we find that the stressors have a lasting impact on inflammatory responses, which dictate how long and how well we live. New, unpublished data demonstrate how age-associated inflammation, the seeds of which are sown in youth, affect late-life cognition and frailty.   

About Dawn Bowdish
Dr. Dawn Bowdish, PhD (Department of Medicine, McMaster University) is the Executive Director of the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health, which is one of Canada’s largest respirology research institutes. In her role as Executive Director, she supports the Firestone’s mission to improve the lives of those living with chronic lung disease through research, education and clinical service. Her research interests include understanding how the aging immune system contributes to risk of respiratory infections, interacts with the microbiome and alters vaccine responses. During the COVID-19 pandemic she has co-led Canada’s largest study of COVID-19 infections and vaccinations in older adults living in long-term care and retirement communities and her team’s research findings have helped shape Ontario’s vaccination policies.  As a member of the Board of Directors of the Lung Health Foundation, she advocates for increased research into lung health and advocates for increased vaccination against respiratory infections especially in older adults and those living with chronic lung disease.

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