Ronald Glaser, PhD 

OSU’s Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research (IBMR) and The Ohio State University Mind/Body Center on stress and wound healing within the IBMR, directed by Ronald Glaser, PhD, supports a broad program of research in psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) – the study of how the brain and immune system interact.

Glaser, who holds the Gilbert and Kathryn Mitchell Chair in Medicine and directs the Center for Stress and Wound Healing at OSU, says the IBMR may comprise the largest group of PNI researchers in the world. The group includes experts in immunology, virology, psychology, endocrinology, molecular biology, behavior, oncology and the neurosciences.

Through grant-funded studies over the years, they have discovered: that chronic stress can weaken the immune status of spousal caregivers of Alzheimer’s disease patients, making them more susceptible to some diseases; that high stress can slow wound healing enough to increase the risks of recovery  in procedures ranging from minor dental surgery with implications for major surgery; how well a person responds to vaccines against bacterial and viral diseases may be impaired if administered when the person is highly stressed; and that even minor psychological stress and depression can impact health even in normally happy people.

Also a member of the OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center, Glaser and several colleagues have received a $1.8 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to study the human immune system’s response to a skin cancer known as basal cell carcinoma (BCC), the most common kind of cancer and one of the few that can regress spontaneously in some patients.

Among other things, this study aims to discover why BCC tumors disappear in some patients but not others. Based on earlier research at OSU, Glaser believes it may have to do with age and levels of stress and depression. “It is now known that there is significant interaction between psychological factors and the immune system. We think it is possible that this relationship is somehow linked to the immune response to immunogenic tumors like BCC,” he explains, noting that an immunogenic tumor is one that triggers an immune system response.

Glaser and colleagues will study patients who have had BCC tumors surgically removed, then evaluate the tumors and measure the patients’ immune responses by determining the number and types of immune cells that are attracted to the tumors as well as other cell markers believed to be signals of an immune response. “Understanding the relationship among all these variables may give us a way to predict who would be at risk for multiple BCCs so they can be followed over time,” says Glaser.

Dr. Glaser’s research colleagues include: Barbara Andersen, PhD; Firdaus Dhabhar, PhD; Charles Emery, MD; Scott Jewell, PhD; Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, PhD; David Lambert, MD; Stanley Lemeshow, PhD; Bill Malarkey, MD; Randy Nelson, PhD; David Padgett, PhD; Phil Popovich, PhD; Ning Quan, PhD; John Sheridan, PhD; Saul Suster, MD; and Caroline Whitacre, PhD.