Cahill Katherine N

Dr. Katherine Cahill is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and serves as the Medical Director of Clinical Asthma Research. Dr. Cahill received her degree in biology at Pepperdine University and her medical degree from Rutgers - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She completed an internal medicine residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center followed by a fellowship in allergy and immunology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, both in Boston. After 5 years on Faculty at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, she moved her family to Nashville in 2018 to join the clinical and research team at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Cahill studies the mechanisms of adult asthma with a primary interest in severe asthma phenotypes including aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease (AERD) and obesity-associated asthma. Her work has demonstrated mast cell mediator production contributes to severe asthma phenotypes and inhibition of mast cells with imatinib improves airway hyperresponsiveness. In 2021, Dr. Cahill was recognized by the American Thoracic Society with the Jo Rae Wright Award for her contribution to science. Dr. Cahill is co-PI of an NIAID-funded U01 to evaluate the clinical and mechanistic impact of GLP-1R agonists in obesity-associated asthma, a site-PI for the American Lung Association Lung Health Cohort, and a site co-Investigator for the Precision Biologic Interventions for Severe Exacerbation Prone Asthma (PrecISE) clinical trial. Through her research efforts, Dr. Cahill aims to develop new treatment options and improve the quality of life for adults with asthma.