Associate Professor Sandra Hodge

Biography/ Background

Position

NHMRC CDA Research Fellow

Senior Research Fellow, Lung Research, Hanson Institute and Department of Thoracic Medicine, Royal Adelaide Hospital

Associate Professor, University of Adelaide, Department of Medicine

Biography/background

Sandra Hodge leads the COPD Research Team at the Lung Research Laboratory, Hanson Institute. Funded studies have focused on providing a better understanding the cause-effect relationships between smoking, COPD and macrophage dysfunction and to evaluate treatment strategies specifically aimed at improving the quality of life of patients with COPD/emphysema. Her group is internationally recognised for their pioneering concept of dysregulated apoptosis and defective phagocytosis of apoptotic cells by alveolar macrophages in the airways of subjects with COPD. COPD patients have an increased risk of lung cancer, therefore a further focus is the investigation of pro-tumourogenic macrophage phenotype and function in normal and lung cancer tissue from COPD patients and smokers.  She also has a keen interest in lung transplantation, which provides the only viable therapeutic option for patients with end-stage lung disease. This study forms is a collaborative venture between the Queensland, WA and SA transplant programs.  

Categories: Medicine and Medical Research, Therapies Expertise: COPD/emphysema, lung transplantation, phagocytosis, efferocytosis, lung and alveolar macrophages, macrophage-directed therapies.

Major Awards

• 2009: Australian Respiratory Council (ARC) Harry Windsor Award

• 2009: Affiliate Associate Professor, University of Adelaide

• 2008: Hanson Institute New Clinical Investigator Award

• 2008: NHMRC Biomedical Career Development Award (CDA)

• 2008: NHMRC Clinical CDA *relinquished for Biomedical CDA

• 2008 Royal Adelaide Hospital/IMVS Research Committee Florey Fellowship*

• 2008: Australian Lung Foundation (ALF) Webster Research Award

• 2007  Qantas Research Travel Support Scheme Award

• 2005 Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ)/ Allan Hanbury’s Respiratory Res. Fellowship

• 2002 ALF/ Boehringer Ingelheim Chronic Airflow Limitation Res. Fellowship

• 2002 TSANZ (SA) Young Investigator Award

International and National recognition

Frequent citations in the published literature by world-renowned experts in the field: eg, PJ Barnes (Pharmacological Reviews 2004;56(4):515) (ERS, Copenhagen 2005), W. Vandivier (Chest, 2006;129(6):1673)

 Invitations – International

§                      COPD Think Tank Novel Targets Meeting, Philadelphia, USA 2006

§                      Session Chair (Asthma and Allergy), APSR International meeting 2007

§                      Visiting Professor National Jewish Medical Research Centre, Denver, USA 2009

§                      Invited speaker Mini-symposium (Failed efferocytosis in chronic lung disease) American Thoracic Society  (ATS) Meeting New Orleans 2010

§                      Invited Session Chair: Mini Symposium Coins for the Boatman: Clearance of Apoptotic Cells in Lung Disease. ATS  Meeting New Orleans 2010

Selected Invitations- National

§                      Science meets Parliament, March 2008 representing NHMRC

§                      Newcastle Asthma Meeting 2008

§                      Australian Lung Foundation 2009

§                      Australian Respiratory Council 2009

§                      Poster Mentor TSANZ Annual Meeting March 2008

Memberships: TSANZ, Asia Pacific Society of Respirology (APSR), Australasian Flow Cytometry Group (AFCG) (Past National Secretary; Past National President), Child Health Research Institute, ALF, Hanson Institute, NARF

 Clinical translation of research: Clinical trial of low-dose Azithromycin therapy in COPD

 Funding agencies: NHMRC, ARC, ALF, TSANZ, Alan & Hanburys, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pfizer, CARG

 Publication Record: 52 publications in reviewed scientific journals, h index 11; 30 as first author (including journals with impact factor > 5:Am J Respir Crit Care Med (IF 8.9), ERJ (IF 5.076), Am J Resp Cell Mol Biol (IF)).

 Selected publications

Hodge S, et al. Alveolar macrophages from subjects with COPD are deficient in their ability to phagocytose apoptotic airway epithelial cells. Immunol.Cell Biol.2003;81, 289-296.

Hodge S, et al. Differential rates of apoptosis in BAL and blood of lung transplant patients. J Heart Lung Transplant. 2005;24(9):1305-14.

Hodge S, et al. Increased apoptosis in the airways in COPD persists after smoking cessation. Eur Respir J, 2005;25(3):447

Hodge S, et al. Increased airway granzyme b and perforin in current and ex-smoking COPD subjects. Journal of COPD 2006;3:1

Hodge S, et al.  Smoking alters alveolar macrophage recognition and phagocytic ability: implications in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 2007;37(6):748

Hodge S, et al. Azithromycin Improves Macrophage Phagocytic Function and Expression of Mannose Receptor in COPD. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2008;178(2):139

 Article selected for Faculty of 1000 Medicine 31st July 2008 [http://www.f1000medicine.com/article/c8yqtrgvjxcpht5/id/1117921]

Hodge S, et al. Post-transplant bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome is associated with bronchial epithelial to mesenchymal transition. Am J Transplant. 2009; April; in press. Figure selected to appear on the cover of the April issue IF 6.3

Hodge S, et al. Therapeutic role for mannose-binding lectin in smoke-induced lung inflammation? Evidence from a murine model. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 2009, May.

Article selected for Faculty of 1000 Medicine 19th  June 2009 [http://www.f1000medicine.com/article/8swk3tmlqn7h4ym/id/1162103]

Selected invited reviews

Hodge S, et al. Apoptosis in COPD. Current Respiratory Medicine Reviews 2005;1(1);33-41

Selected invited contributions to books (Chapter)

Hodge S, et al. New Apoptosis Research in Respiratory Disease In Cell Apoptosis Research Progress Nova Science Publishers, 2008 Eds Fenton RH and Burnside CV, pp. 1-47.

Hodge S, Reynolds PN. The impact of defective clearance of apoptotic cells in the pathogenesis of chronic lung diseases: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and cystic fibrosis. In: Phagocytosis of dying cells: from molecular mechanisms to human diseases. Editors: Dmitri V. Krysko and Peter Vandenabeele. Springer publisher. Pp 393-407. 2009

Hodge, S. Chapter 4. Defective clearance of apoptotic cells (efferocytosis) in chronic lung diseases In Lung macrophages in health and chronic disease Editor: Sandra Hodge ©Betham eBooks 2009. Accepted for publication 20.1.9 

Book Editor

Lung macrophages in health and chronic disease Betham eBooks 2009.

 

 

 

 

Entry last updated: Tuesday, 17 Nov 2009