Faculty Expert Profile

Marsha Wills-Karp is a leading immunologist whose research into the role of the cytokine, interleukin-13, opened a new paradigm in asthma studies that has become one of the central tenets of asthma research. Wills-Karp's research focuses on the environmental and genetic determinants of allergic airway diseases and the immune mechanisms involved in asthma. Her work on how allergens and airborne pollutants activate immune pathways has made significant contributions to the understanding of how altered immune recognition of environmental factors can lead to the development of allergic disease.

She is the chair of the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Whiting School of Engineering and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; the Anna M. Baetjer Professor of Environmental Health and Engineering; and a Bloomberg Centennial Professor.