Stephanie Shore PhD

Dr. Stephanie Shore, Ph.D. received her BSc in Physics and Physiology at McGill University in 1979 and her Ph.D. in Respiratory Physiology at McGill University in 1984. She did her thesis work under the mentorship of Dr. James Martin at the Meakins Christie Labs. Her thesis work involved examination of factors, especially prostanoids and cholinergic innervation, contributing to the heterogeneity of airway smooth muscle responsiveness to histamine. In 1984, she moved to Boston, MA and joined the lab of Dr. Jeffrey Drazen at the Harvard School of Public Health to do her postdoctoral fellowship.

During that time she worked on canine models of chronic bronchitis. She also developed an interest in the sensory innervation of the lung, particularly the neuropeptides substance P and neuropeptide K, and their roles in airway disease. In 1989, she joined the faculty of the Respiratory Biology Program (now the Molecular and Integrative Physiological Sciences Program) in the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard School of Public Health, where she is now a Senior Lecturer.

In the mid 1990’s, Dr. Shore’s interests shifted towards understanding how inflammatory cytokines interact with airway smooth muscle, particularly their responses to beta agonists. Her interest in obesity and its impact on the lung began in the early 2000’s as the rising obesity epidemic made the role of obesity as a risk factor for asthma more apparent.