Regarding his methods work, Dr. Ley recently developed "dynamic footprinting," which marks a significant contribution to methods work in the vascular immunology field. The footprinting enables scientists to study neutrophil adhesion, a molecular process important in fighting bacterial infections, in unprecedented detail. As part of creating the dynamic footprinting method, Dr. Ley collaborated with Dr. Alex Groisman at UCSD to develop a microfluidic flow chamber 10,000 times smaller than the existing version. Using this flow chamber, scientists can see the surface structures and molecules involved in neutrophil adhesion with exceptional clarity. "The ability to understand what is actually occurring is significantly enhanced."

A native of Germany, Dr. Ley joined the La Jolla Institute in 2007 as Head of the Division of Inflammation Biology. Previously, he was director of the Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center at the University of Virginia. He has received many major awards, including the prestigious Marie T. Bonazinga Research Award, the highest honor presented by the Society for Leukocyte Biology. Dr. Ley holds an M.D. from the Julius-Maximilians-Universit-t inW-rzburg, Germany and completed postdoctoral training in physiology and biomedical engineering in Berlin and at UC San Diego. He has published more than 200 scientific papers and is co-founder of Targeson, a biotech company developing contrast agents for molecular imaging.

Source: La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology