Anne Wright, PhD

Anne L. Wright, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, at the University of Arizona.  She was a co-founder of the Tucson Children's Respiratory Study (TCRS), a highly influential birth cohort study of the development of asthma in non-selected children. The TCRS has followed over 800 subjects from birth into the 4th decade of life to investigate, prospectively and longitudinally, the risk factors for the development of asthma and asthma-like symptoms.  She also co-founded the Infant Immune Study (IIS).  Begun in 1996, the IIS was designed to provide a comprehensive picture of patterns of immune system maturation in early life, to determine how these patterns influence and/or reflect risk for asthma, and to assess the genetic and environmental factors that alter these relations.  She has published more than 120 papers on the natural history of asthma from birth to early adulthood, including papers pertaining to delineation of distinct asthma phenotypes, identification of early life events that modulate immune system development and risk for asthma, and assessment of multiple factors that influence lung function and bronchial responsiveness. A medical anthropologist, Dr. Wright is also well known for her research into the epidemiology of childhood asthma and cultural factors (especially infant feeding practices) that influence child health.