Biography

Dr Arm is a Principal Investigator in the Inflammation and Allergic Disease Research Section of the Division of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. He is Associate Director of the Brigham and Women's Hospital clinical training program in allergy and immunology. His clinical interests are in asthma and allergic disease. His research focuses on the regulation of lipid mediator generation and on a family of molecules that regulate immune responses, the leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptors. His work on lipid mediator generation has two themes: the role of different phospholipase A2 enzymes and the modulation of lipid mediator generation by dietary fatty acids.

Dr Arm trained in Internal Medicine and in Allergy in the United Kingdom where he began his research on the role of a class of lipid mediators, the leukotrienes, in bronchial asthma. His work provided evidence that this class of mediators, in particular leukotriene E4, contributes to bronchial asthma and also provided evidence that dietary supplementation with fish oil modified leukotriene generation in asthmatic individuals. He received a prestigious Medical Research Council traveling fellowship to further his research training at the Brigham and Women's Hospital where he cloned the first member of the leukocyte immunoglobulin like receptors. He returned to the Brigham and Women's Hospital and to the faculty of Harvard Medical School in 1993 where he continued his work on the leukocyte immunoglobulin like receptors with particular focus on their potential role in modifying the inflammatory response in bronchial asthma. His work on lipid mediators led him to studies of phospholipase A2, which is the first enzyme involved in lipid mediator generation. His work is providing new insight into novel functions of this class of enzyme in inflammation and innate immunity. His interest in the capacity of dietary fatty acids to modulate lipid mediator generation was recently rekindled, and his laboratory is studying the potential of botanical fatty acids to modulate leukotriene generation and as a treatment for bronchial asthma.

Dr Arm is Associate Director of the allergy and immunology training program of the Brigham and Women's Hospital. He serves on the Program Directors subcommittee of the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology in which he holds several other committee appointments. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry and of Prostaglandins Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids. He is author of more than 100 journal articles and book chapters. His work is funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health.