Richard Locksley is a medical doctor, professor and researcher of infectious diseases, who pioneered approaches to study immunology.[American Academy of Microbiology. Richard Locksley, American Academy of Microbiology website, 2016. Accessed 14 December 2017.] He is a professor of medicine and microbiology and immunology at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, where he also serves as the director of the Sandler Asthma Basic Research Center. He is also an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. In 2018, he was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences for his work on immunology.
Early life
Locksley graduated from
Kent School in 1966. He received a Bachelor of Arts in biochemistry from
Harvard College in 1970 and Doctor of Medicine from the University of Rochester in 1976. He completed his residency at University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine in 1980 and trained in infectious diseases at the University of Washington 1980-1983.
Career and research
Locksley joined the faculty of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in 1986 as Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and established a laboratory focused on type-2 immunity.
In 2004 he founded the Sandler Asthma Basic Research Center (SABRE), which unites immunology, genetics and airway-disease biology, and he continues to serve as its director.
Defining type-2 immunity
Locksley's group created bicistronic IL-4/IL-13 reporter mice that allowed the first direct visualization of T-helper-2 cytokine production in vivo.
Using these and related models, his laboratory co-discovered group-2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s), demonstrating their essential role in parasite expulsion and allergic airway inflammation.
His recent work maps neuro-immune circuits in which enteric neurons and tuft cells activate ILC2s to coordinate barrier immunity.
Influence and teaching
Over four decades he has trained more than 60 graduate students and post-doctoral fellows and co-directed UCSF's advanced immunology courses.
The American Association of Immunologists (AAI) honored him with its Excellence in Mentoring Award in 2023.
Awards and honors
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Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator (1997 – present)
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Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected 2005)
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William E. Paul Award for Excellence in Cytokine Research (2016, International Cytokine & Interferon Society)
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Fellow, American Academy of Microbiology (elected 2017)
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Member, National Academy of Sciences (elected 2018)
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AAI Distinguished Fellow (2019)
Selected publications
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Locksley RM. "The ins and outs of innate and adaptive type-2 immunity." Science 356 (2017): eaal4373.
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Mohrs M, Shinkai K, Locksley RM. "A bifunctional reporter mouse reveals dynamics of Th2 cytokine-producing T cells." Nat Immunol 6 (2005): 1245–1251.
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O'Leary CE et al. "Neuro-immune crosstalk activates protective intestinal immunity." Cell 185 (2022): 713–731.
