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Director's Welcome

Our scholarly activity is wide and multifaceted in the area of allergy, asthma, rheumatology and immunology. Research foci include assessment of psychological dysfunction as a component of the pathophysiology of various allergic and immune diseases such as asthma and chronic allergic skin diseases, understanding the immunological mechanisms defining endotypes of various allergic and rheumatic diseases and assessing new therapeutic opportunities through clinical trials for many of the clinical conditions for which we care. Opportunities exist for investigation in all aspects of the translational research spectrum from bench assessment of biomarkers to clinical trials to population epidemiology-based studies. Faculty members are willing and able to mentor learners from students to residents to fellows as well as collaboration with other faculty in these projects to improve the understanding of disease processes, roles of various comorbidities and optimization of treatment effects for therapeutic options.

Our educational efforts are both varied and comprehensive. From our weekly teaching conferences aimed at both our allergy-immunology and rheumatology fellows and rotating resident physicians to our faculty participation in multiple undergraduate medical school lectures to extramural continuing medical education lectures, our entire faculty is committed to providing current and relevant educational opportunities about allergic, rheumatic and other immune-based diseases. In addition, we have extremely successful fellowship training programs in allergy-immunology and rheumatology that have for 15+ years produced high-quality board-certified allergists-immunologists and rheumatologists, many of whom practice in Mississippi.

Finally, our divisional faculty and fellows provide the highest quality comprehensive clinical care for patients with allergy, asthma, rheumatology and immunodeficiency-based diseases. We have a fully functioning outpatient clinical presence at both UMMC and the Jackson VA Medical Center. We see referral patients from all over the state and have most recently developed a telemedicine-based remote practice that will provide convenience for those patients for whom travel to our clinical facilities would be challenging or impossible. We have faculty expertise in all aspects of clinical immunology including asthma, drug and food allergy, anaphylaxis, chronic rhinosinusitis, autoimmune and collagen vascular diseases. We have access to the cutting-edge technologies and therapies used to accurately diagnose and treat these illnesses.

In summary, the Division of Clinical Immunology aspires to be a leader in all aspects of our academic mission and promote the success of the Department and UMMC as a whole. I welcome you to our homepage and will be happy to help in any way possible to interact for our mutual benefit.

All best wishes,

Gailen D. Marshall, Jr., MD PhD, FACP, FACAAI, FAAAAI
The R. Faser Triplett Sr MD Chair of Allergy and Immunology
Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, Pathology and Population Health Sciences
Director, Division of Clinical Immunology