Community Insider - Jack F. Bukowski, M.D., Ph.D.

Dedicated to the study of the human immune system for the over 30 years, Dr. Bukowski began his research career in 1974, while still an undergraduate student at Johns Hopkins University. He continued his research throughout the years, first a trainee, then ultimately as faculty member at Harvard Medical School. In late 2001, Dr. Bukowski, although still maintaining a part time research post at Harvard, left the university to accept a full-time position as a medical director in the pharmaceutical industry.

In late 2005, Dr. Bukowski resigned his full-time post to become a founding member of NSRI. This decision was based on widespread encouragement from colleagues, business partners, friends and family to incorporate his impressive immunology research discoveries into developing products to promote better health.

Dr. Bukowski’s primary focus has been on a part of the immune system called the innate immune system, which makes people naturally resistant to disease. Without vaccinations or being exposed to a disease, our innate immune system somehow possess the ability to prevent us from getting sick with colds, flu, other infections, and cancer. Dr. Bukowski has spent the majority of his career researching this part of the immune system and the specific factors that cause some people’s innate immune systems to function better than others.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, while studying how the innate immune system is activated, his laboratory discovered, quite by accident, that certain molecules found in the diet can significantly boost innate immunity. It was determined that nutrients found in certain foods and beverages, especially tea, could actually induce our innate immune systems to fight off cancer more effectively, as well as battle the viruses, bacteria, and parasites that cause colds, flu, and other infections. This remarkable discovery led to a renowned study, published in 2003, proving that drinking five to six cups per day of tea boosts, by 500 to 1500%, the ability of an innate immune system component to make interferon gamma. Interferon gamma enables the elimination of virus, bacteria, and parasites that cause illness such as colds, flu, pneumonia, and diarrhea, and have also been found to kill cancer cells.

Dr. Bukowski's landmark study helped usher in the new and exciting field of Immununutrition.

Dr. Bukowski has authored over 100 research articles, abstracts, and review articles. He has been a reviewer for many scientific journals, and has been on study sections for the NIH and Arthritis Foundation. He is a consultant to the Department of Defense on matters of bioterrorism.