Professional Bio
Dr. Zand is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Nephrology at the University of Rochester. He is the Medical Director of the Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Programs, and co-director of the Center for Biodefense Immune Modeling.
Dr. Zand graduated from Northwestern University with an undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering, a PhD in Cell, Molecular and Structural Biology, and an MD. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine and Fellowship in Nephrology at Beth Israel Medical Center and Harvard University in Boston. He joined University of Rochester Medical Center faculty in July 1998 as Medical Director of the Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Programs.
Dr. Zand has a clinical practice in Transplant Nephrology and Transplant Medicine, and sees patients with kidney and other solid organ transplants. He is an internationally recognized expert in B cell immunobiology in solid organ transplantation. He directs an active NIH funded research program in B cell immunobiology, vaccine biology, and computational modeling of immune responses, and numerous clinical research studies.
Research Bio
B cells and plasma cells participate in the adaptive immune response, and are responsible for antibody production, antigen presentation, and modulation of immune responses by other immune cells. Differentiation of B cells into an antibody secreting state to plasma cells helps the immune system defend against viral pathogens, provides long-lived protective immunity after vaccination or infection, and causes antibody mediated rejection of kidney transplants. Thus, it is essential to understand how B cell differentiation and antibody production is regulated if we are to enhance B cell anti-viral and vaccine responses, or to prevent transplant rejection. My laboratory focuses on studying B cell activation and differentiation using cell culture, animal models, and translational studies of human immune responses to vaccination in normal subjects and immune suppressed transplant recipients. We use innovative mathematical modeling and statistical analyses to gain insights from complex and large experimental data sets. Our experiments often involve daily analysis of gene expression and cellular phenotypes from single subjects over 5-10 days after vaccination. The scientific questions we are focused on include:
1. What is the timing of B cell differentiation and antibody secretion, and how can we alter the molecular and cellular events to improve vaccine responses?
2. What are the molecular gene expression signatures of a successful B cell vaccine response?
3. How can we use mathematical models to create individualized treatment protocols for kidney transplant patients with antibody mediated rejection or allosensitization?
2012 Jun 29
Li X, Miao H, Henn A, Topham DJ, Wu H, Zand MS, Mosmann TR. "Ki-67 expression reveals strong, transient influenza specific CD4 T cell responses after adult vaccination." Vaccine. 2012 Jun 29; 30(31):4581-4. Epub 2012 Apr 30. |
2012
Henn AD, Laski M, Yang H, Welle S, Qiu X, Miao H, Barry CT, Wu H, Zand MS. "Functionally Distinct Subpopulations of CpG-Activated Memory B Cells." . 2012 2:345. Epub 2012 Mar 30. |
2011 Nov 1
Wu H, Kumar A, Miao H, Holden-Wiltse J, Mosmann TR, Livingstone AM, Belz GT, Perelson AS, Zand MS, Topham DJ. "Modeling of influenza-specific CD8+ T cells during the primary response indicates that the spleen is a major source of effectors." Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950). 2011 Nov 1; 187(9):4474-82. Epub 2011 Sep 23. |
2011 Feb
Diehl AD, Augustine AD, Blake JA, Cowell LG, Gold ES, Gondré-Lewis TA, Masci AM, Meehan TF, Morel PA, Nijnik A, Peters B, Pulendran B, Scheuermann RH, Yao QA, Zand MS, Mungall CJ. "Hematopoietic cell types: prototype for a revised cell ontology." Journal of biomedical informatics. 2011 Feb 0; 44(1):75-9. Epub 2010 Feb 01. |
2011
Zand MS, Orloff MS, Abt P, Patel S, Tsoulfas G, Kashyap R, Jain A, Safadjou S, Bozorgzadeh A. "High mortality in orthotopic liver transplant recipients who require hemodialysis." Clinical transplantation. 2011 25(2):213-21. |
