Departmentof Microbiology & Immunology Seminar
Tuesday – June 18, 2013**4:00 PM**K-207 (Room 2-6408)
Elizabeth B. Wilson, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, UCLA
Title: Regulation of Immunosuppression in Persistent Viral Infections
Host: Scott Gerber
Liz received her Ph.D. in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology in 2009
Seminar Abstract: Persistent viral infections such as HIV and HCV are major global public health concerns characterized by severe immunosuppression and aberrant immune activation. Understanding how the environment of persistence is established, maintained and regulated is critical to determining effective therapeutics to purge these infections. Our lab is interested in the role of cytokines in modulating the immune environment in persistent infections. Specifically we have identified a novel role for type I interferon in driving immunosuppression and immune activation in persistent infection and strikingly we found that interfering with IFN-I signals actually facilitated clearance of the persistent infection
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MBI 501 Graduate Student Seminar
Thursday – June 20, 2013** 12:00 Noon** K-207 (Room 2-6408)
Presenter: Anthony DiPiazza Advisor: Andrea Sant
Title: Engineering a model to study cognate interactions between influenza--specific
B cells and CD4+ T cells in vivo
Abstract:
Although the seasonal influenza vaccine, which can protect 60--90% of young, healthy adults, has been used for decades, defining the cellular and molecular parameters that confer protection remains incompletely understood. It is well established however, that successful vaccination and protective immune responses to influenza relies on effective CD4+ T cell--dependent antibody responses that contribute not only to primary clearance of the virus but perhaps more importantly, through sterilizing immunity in the form of circulating antibodies and immunologic B cell memory. As yet, there has been no experimental system to evaluate how HA-- specific B cells access influenza antigen and what influenza--derived peptides they display. Therefore, our lab has been working to develop a recombinant Influenza A virus model that possesses an HA protein bearing a B cell epitope that can be selectively recognized by B cell receptor transgenic mice. This strategy may provide new insights not only into B cell antigen acquisition and handling, but also cognate
interactions between B cells and CD4+ T cells in vivo. Here, we inserted five different
epitopes into antigenic site “b” of A/Puerto Rico/8/34 (H1N1) HA and have begun evaluating their ability to express the epitope on the surface of transiently transfected cells using a minigenome assay. Additionally, we have tested the functionality of the recombinant HAs and their capacity for virus rescue by HA-- deficient, single--cycle virus complementation. Furthermore, we share preliminary data from ongoing studies that indicate a successful rescue of an epitope--bearing
recombinant virus using reverse genetics, plasmid--based approaches. |
