TSRI Faculty Interests

Inflammation

Beutler, Bruce  
searches for genes that are required for normal immune function through germline mutagenesis and positional cloning.

Bokoch, Gary  
studies the control and integration of cellular activities initiated by GTP-binding proteins, seeking to determine how GTP-binding proteins function, how they are regulated at the molecular level, and how this regulation may be abnormal in various disease states.

Friedlander, Martin  
examines the mechanisms whereby proteins are asymmetrically integrated into cell membranes and studies the basic mechanisms of ocular angiogenesis and potential therapeutic applications for treating degenerative retinal and neovascular eye diseases.

Gruol, Donna  
examines the pathways and mechanisms involved in neuronal signaling in the mammalian central nervous system (CNS), developmental expression of signaling pathways, and the neuroadaptive mechanisms through which CNS disease and drugs alter neuronal signaling and viability.

Havran, Wendy  
studies a unique subset of T lymphocytes, called "gamma-delta" T cells, which reside in epithelial tissues, are derived from fetal precursors, express a tissue-specific, invariant antigen receptor, and are involved in tissue repair as well as epithelial inflammatory diseases such as asthma and ulcerative colitis.

Jameson, Julie  
is examining the mechanisms involved in the dysregulation of skin γδ T cells in nonhealing wounds.

McKay, Dianne  
explores the intracellular signaling events and pathways that lead to the tolerance or rejection of transplanted organs by T cells.

Mowen, Kerri  
investigates the molecular events which control T helper cell and mast cell function, specifically studying a role for the posttranslational modification of arginine methylation by isolating novel substrates, determining the effects of arginine methylation on substrate function, and creating mice deficient in the enzymes that regulate arginine methylation.

Nemerow, Glen  
investigates the interaction of adenovirus with host cells, looking at the basic mechanisms involved in virus attachment, internalization, membrane penetration, and nuclear localization, and seeking to design novel adenoviral vectors with increased capacity to deliver therapeutic genes to specific cell types.

Oldstone, Michael  
studies the interaction of viruses and the immune system, how viruses persist and the resultant disease, how a non-lytic virus alters the differentiation function of the infected cell, investigates infectious protein folding disease and uses transgenic mouse models to understand human diseases. Included are molecular explorations for how viruses suppress the immune system or on the other side of the coin, induce autoimmunity.

Quigley, James  
uses in vivo models, directed enzyme inhibitors and specific function-blocking antibodies to identify pathways and molecules which contribute to tumor metastasis and angiogenesis.

Theofilopoulos, Argyrios  
works on the identification of predisposing and effector genes in systemic autoimmunity, as exemplified in spontaneous mouse models of lupus. Both forward (phenotype → genes) and reverse (gene → phenotype) approaches are used and several genes that promote (type I and II IFNs) or suppress (coronin 1A) this disease have thus far been identified.

Torbett, Bruce  
studies transcriptional regulation of myeloid development and function, develops and tests novel techniques for delivering genes to cells to provide protection against HIV or cancer; he also investigates how the structural changes in HIV protease contribute to biochemical functions that confer protease inhibitor resistance.

Whitton, J. Lindsay  
studies antiviral immunity mediated by the recognition of viral peptides by host cells, the basis of immunization with plasmid DNA vaccines, and the role of the immune system in viral pathogenesis during coxsackievirus infections.