Draft:Louise Rollins-Smith

Louise Rollins-Smith is an American amphibian disease researcher. She is a Professor of Biological Sciences, Professor of Paediatrics, and a Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at Vanderbilt University.

Career and research
Rollins-Smith received her Bachelor's degree in Biology at Hamline University, Saint Paul, Minnesota, before completing a Masters and a PhD in Zoology at the University of Minnesota in 1977. Rollins-Smith was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Rochester before joining Vanderbilt University in 1984.

Rollins-Smith has studied disease and immunity in amphibians for more than 40 years and has published over 150 peer-reviewed journal articles. Her early research was focused upon Lucké renal adenocarcinoma of leopard frogs, the development of immunological tolerance and immune changes at metamorphosis in frogs. Rollins-Smith has also studied the effects of immunotoxic and agricultural chemicals on amphibian immunity.

Since the link between widespread amphibian declines and the amphibian chytrid fungi, Bactrochochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal), Rollins-Smith's research has became more focused on these pathogens in relation to amphibian immunity. Her research has shown mechanisms of immune evasion by Bd and Bsal, including that both pathogens release factors which inhibit lymphocyte responses. Rollins-Smith has also become well-known for her work on amphibian skin antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). Alongside her colleagues, she has provided evidence that the effectiveness of AMPs is a valuable predictor of amphibian species susceptibility to the Bd , and that AMPs are potent inhibitors of viral infection, including HIV infection of human T lymphocytes.