Julia Bohannon, PhD

Dr. Bohannon completed her PhD at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, TX, where she began her studies into immune function following severe burn injury. After completing her PhD studies in 2011, she joined the Sherwood Lab at UTMB as a postdoctoral fellow. Shortly thereafter, she assisted Dr. Sherwood in relocating his laboratory to the Anesthesiology department at VUMC in 2012, where she completed her postdoctoral training. She joined Anesthesiology faculty in 2015 and now has her own research program aimed at investigating immunomodulatory therapies for the prevention of infection and sepsis in patients with severe burn and other critical injuries. Utilizing a variety of murine trauma and infection models, as well as ex vivo study of peripheral blood leukocytes obtained from critically ill patients, Julie's studies seek to understand how critical illness causes immune dysfunction and increased susceptibility to infection. The goal of these studies is to develop new approaches to decrease the incidence and severity of infection in critically injured patients.