Carol Pontzer

Born in Bethesda, Pontzer completed a Ph.D. in biology from Marquette University. She received her postdoctoral training at the University of Florida. It was there that she began working on structural studies of type I interferons and binding of staphylococcal enterotoxins to MHC using synthetic peptide mimetics and inhibitors. Together with Howard Johnson and Fuller Bazer, she identified and characterized the activity of a novel subtype of interferon, interferon tau.[2]

Pontzer worked at the department of cell biology and molecular genetics at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD). There she worked on the structure/function relationship of immune modifiers, creating a panel of type I interferons with mutations that altered receptor binding, JAK/STAT signaling and subsequent activity and toxicity. Pontzer taught immunology and microbiology for 11 years at UMD. She continued to teach immunology online until her death.[2]

Pontzer joined the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) as a scientific review officer in 2002. She later became a program director in the division of extramural research.[3] Pontzer oversaw a grants portfolio on complementary health approaches intended to modulate immunity. This included mitigation of symptoms, such as inflammation, and use of natural product interventions in diseases such as asthma/allergy and arthritis. She was a basic scientist with expertise in immunologic, genomic and proteomic methodologies.[2]

Pontzer died of brain cancer on July 15, 2017.[2]

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