Dr. Kevin Legge, Professor of Pathology, has been appointed to the Pathology Professorship in Pulmonary Immunology Research. Dr. Legge received his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, followed by a Post-Doctoral fellowship at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

Dr. Legge has been a highly productive faculty member in Pathology since 2004 and has been a full Professor since 2018. Dr. Legge’s focus on pulmonary immunology has included work examining the basic cellular elements of this local immune system, including lung T cells, B cells, and dendritic cells. He has further explored the means by which this airway immune system responds to and defeats viral infection with a focus on influenza virus, RSV and more recently SARS-CoV-2. Dr. Legge has also examined how certain co-morbid conditions can affect pulmonary immunity such as alcohol abuse and sepsis. 

More recently, he has taken a more translational approach in his work, and with a team of collaborators, focused on developing novel airway vaccines to influenza virus. This effort has proven very successful as measured by two large non-modular NIH R01 grants and a substantial award from the Iowa Economic Development Authority. This vaccine technology has been patented and is methodically being developed with the goal of a phase I clinical trial in the near future.