immunology program

Fall 2009

Immunology Program University of Texas Health Science Center

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES

Included in this issue:

Highlights of the Spring Retreat 2009, Guest Interviews, Photos of colleagues

Upcoming Events

August 25, 2009 New Student Orientation

3-5pm in SCRB1.1025

Immunology Program Retreat

Guest: Dr. Diane Mathis

Location: TBA

June 10, 2010

Dear Faculty and Students,

This has been a great year for the GSBS Program in Immunology, despite a rough start with Hurricane Ike in September. Even though many of us endured days, or in some cases weeks, without power at home, research within the Program kept on at a remarkable pace. GSBS students and faculty also found the time and resources to contribute furniture, toys and household items to UTMB-Galveston students who had suffered massive losses with Ike. This outpouring of generosity was wonderful and greatly appreciated at UTMB.

As always, our focus for the year has been to promote an interactive, scientifically engaging and intellectually stimulating environment for Program students and faculty. This year we were fortunate to receive institutional funds that enabled us to host our first Program Retreat in many years (highlighted in this newsletter), and also provide the opportunity for students to meet visiting seminar speakers over lunch or dinner. The Retreat was expertly run by an extremely energetic and dedicated group of students.

The Keynote lecture by Dr. Alexander Rudensky and student presentations were outstanding, and very nicely served to increase our understanding of research within the field as well as various Program labs. The funds have also allowed a different group of equally

Cont’d on the next pg….

Find out about life after GSBS from a recent graduate!

2010 GSBS Student Visitation weekend dates

January 28-31

February 11-14

February 25-28

March 11-14

April 8-11

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Message from Program director cont’d….

energetic and talented students to produce this newsletter, which is a wonderful way to increase communication across the Program. Personally, it’s been extremely rewarding to work with the students on these various activities, observe their development and independent contributions, and watch as the Program becomes an even more cohesive and energetic entity. I am deeply grateful for the institutional support that has allowed us these opportunities, as well as the endless hours Program students have spent working together. Most importantly, we have clear evidence that our Program continues to thrive scientifically, with many student publications accepted or submitted this year, and numerous student presentations at national and international immunology meetings. I hope you will enjoy the Program updates that have been assembled in this newsletter and join me in congratulating our excellent group of students for their dedication and hard work.

Sincerely,

Stephanie S. Watowich, Ph.D.

Director, GSBS Program in Immunology

CongratulationstoFaculty

&Students!

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Yong‐JunLiu,M.D.,Ph.D.‐TheDallas/Fort

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FacultyHonorsConvocationonThursday,

October22,2009at4:00p.m.

NewletterCommitteeTeamStephanieWatowich,Ph.D.,Facultymentor

LisaShiue,Editor

HyunJun(Robert)Park,ImageEditor

SpencerStonier,Co‐Editor

GustavoMartinez,Co‐Editor

Contributors JahanKahalli

KarenDwywer,Ph.D.

WendySchober

JaredBurks,Ph.D.

NamNguyen‐Jackson

BenZhu,Ph.D.

Thankstoalltheprogramstudents&facultyfor

theircooperation!

STUDENTS

Immunology Program 2009

Eliseo F. Castillo PI: Kimberly Schluns, Ph.D.Program Join Date: 2006

Evan N. Cohen PI: James Reuben, Ph.D.Program Join Date: 2007

Dipyaman Ganguly PI: Michel Gilliet, M.D.Program Join Date: 2007

Josh Gregorio PI: Michel Gilliet, Ph.D.Program Join Date: 2006

Lenka V. Hurton PI: Laurence Cooper, M.D., Ph.D.Program Join Date: 2006

Denise L. Kellar PI: Laurence Cooper, M.D., Ph.D.Program Join Date: 2007

Hillary Gibbons PI: Laurence Cooper, M.D., Ph.D.Program Join Date: 2008

Jahan Khalili PI: Gregory A. Lizee, Ph.D.Program Join Date: 2006

Yufeng Li PI: Patrick Hwu, M.D.Program Join Date: 2006

Gustavo Martinez PI: Chen Dong, Ph.D.Program Join Date: 2007

Nam Nguyen PI: Stephanie S. Watowich, Ph.D.Program Join Date: 2004

Hyun Jun Park PI: Larry Kwak, M.D., Ph.D.Program Join Date: 2006

Tania G. Rodriguez-Cruz PI: Patrick Hwu, M.D.Program Join Date: 2006

Joanne L. Shaw PI: Yong-Jun Liu, M.D., Ph.D.Program Join Date: 2003

Lisa H. Shiue PI: Madeleine Duvic, M.D.Program Join Date: 2008

Spencer W. Stonier PI: Kimberly Schluns, Ph.D.Program Join Date: 2007

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Fall 2009

After several months of planning and coordinating, the 2009 Spring Retreat was a

success! Program students led by Gustavo Martinez, a Ph.D. candidate training in Dr. Chen Dong’s laboratory, collaborated and brought together ideas for the premiere retreat under Dr. Stephanie Watowich’s direction and the first in many years. The program was fortunate to obtain institutional funding that allows us to initiate annual retreats. On June 12th,2009, this year’s retreat festivities began.

Held at the South Campus Center for Cancer Immunology Research (CCIR), the retreat kicked off with the invited guest speaker, Dr. Alexander Rudensky from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, NY. A front-runner in the field of the popular fast-growing field of regulatory T cells a.k.a. T-regs, Dr. Rudensky, spoke on the development of the

T‐reg lineage and presented recent evidence on the interplay between Foxp3 and other transcription factors addressing the current controversy of “Who’s in Kontrol?” Following Rudensky’s talk, selected program students had the opportunity to give their own talks on their current projects. For being jet-lagged, Dr. Rudensky was a very attentive professor who challenged students with insightful questions and comments to help with their projects.

Events were spaced out with a display of brain-stimulating food including nuts, popcorn, and of course coffee. Door prizes, graciously donated from local establishments, ranged from Red Robins gift baskets, Best Buy gift cards to Galileo thermometers were awarded as well.

Following the talks, students gathered for a more intimate meeting with Dr. Rudensky.

One‐on‐one questions flew back and forth between the immunology master where discussions and ideas were exchanged. Students had the opportunity to get feedback on their projects from a visiting immunologist.

Amongst all the collaboration, also in attendance were immunology students and faculty from Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), our neighbor institution. Students were able to reconnect with them after taking upper level courses Immunology 2 and 3 together. The student talks were followed by a poster competition between invited post-docs and Baylor students. Oral presentation awards were given to Lenka Hurton, Nam Nguyen-Jackson, and Joanne Shaw. Poster presentation awards were awarded amongst two categories: students and postdoctoral fellows. Wendy Man-Ting Tai from BCM and Amy Courtney were awarded 1st and 2nd place in the student category, respectively. Competition between postdoctoral fellows resulted in 1st place awarded to Dr. Yeonseok Chung and 2nd place to Drs. Wei Jin and Mikyoung Chang. The all day events did not end after the student talks but extended to an informal dinner with Dr. Rudensky. After the 2009 Program of Immunology retreat, we all look forward to next year’s retreat tentatively set for June 10, 2010 with guest speaker Dr. Diane Mathis from Harvard University. So mark your calendars for this upcoming event!

Spring Retreat 2009

By Lisa Shiue

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Fall 2009

The Immunology Program was fortunate to have

the opportunity to interview Dr. John O’Shea when he was invited to present his talk on May 13, 2009 entitled

“Transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of helper T

cell differentiation” at the MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Dr. O’Shea is currently the Scientific Director at

the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. He

presented a fascinating story about the histonemethylation state at signature gene loci for

various helper T cell lineages. His seminar taught us

that the use of lysine methylation on histones can explain how these lineages arise and are maintained.

As his talk covered two very current and hot topics,

helper T cell subsets and epigenetics, Dr. O’Shea’s

seminar was a perfect example of a career that has produced many high impact publications.

Dr. O’Shea began his career working on the complement pathway. In 1994, he cloned what would

eventually become commonly known as Jak-3, a protein

tyrosine kinase in many immune signaling pathways. Given the breadth of topics he has published on, it is

apparent that over the years Dr. O’Shea has made

several shifts in his research, an opportunity afforded to

him in part by working at NIH. He has been able to branch out in new directions which is due in part to the

nature of the funding at NIH, which is not as

conservative or limiting as grants, and also the “density of great scientists” that are at the NIH. Dr. O’Shea

relates that having such great colleagues and

collaborators “lowers the energy of activation” by providing different areas of expertise and various

perspectives.

Moments with John O’Shea, M.D. By Spencer Stonier

Recently, Dr. O’Shea delved into the arena of bioinformatics with his study of epigenetic

modifications. We asked for his perspective on how

research may change in the future as technologies,

such as data arrays, become more sophisticated and advanced. He proposed a scenario where someday

there could be less people in labs doing the actual

“wet work” on the bench in favor of more lab members using bioinformatics to plumb the data.

As Dr. O’Shea points out, our greater limitation today is our inability to fully utilize the

massive data output generated by the current

technologies. As a consequence, scientists today

tend to take a couple pieces of the most interesting data that is generated and develop projects from

them, and allow the public to have access to the rest

of the data. While this remains only a possibility at the moment, it is provoking nonetheless to consider

what the evolution of research itself may look like.

The success of Dr. O’Shea’s career is beyond

question, so what are some of the things that interest

him beside his research? A diving and guitar

enthusiast, Dr. O’Shea has a variety of extracurricular interests that he enjoys in addition to

his passion for science. He relates that for him,

having such interests help him in his research because they allow him to distance himself from a

project or a problem, which enables him to approach

the issue in the future with a fresher perspective. Whether the passion is recreational or professional,

however, Dr. O’Shea asserts that for either pursuit,

one mustput in the work to achieve one’s goals.

When asked to offer some advice for young

trainees, Dr. O’Shea was very modest and humble in

the words he had to offer, in part driven by his

contention that there’s no one way to be successful,

and as such did not want to suggest that his was the

path everyone should follow. He did, however,

suggest picking a biological or medical problem that

one cares about. Careers in science and research

are more like marathons than a sprint – it needs to be

something that drives you day in and day out. Dr.

O’Shea’s passion was how signals come from

outside the cell to regulate cell behavior, a topic that

has fueled his interest throughout his career.

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Fall 2009

Current Student Achievements 2008-2009 Graduate Student Publications

Ferrajoli A, Lee BN, Schlette EJ, O'Brien SM, Gao H, Wen S, Wierda WG, Estrov Z, Faderl SH, Cohen EN, Li C, Reuben JM, Keating MJ. (2008). "Lenalidomide induces complete and partial remissions in patients with relapsed and refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia." Blood. 2008 Jun 1: 111(11): 5291-7.

Shearer WT, Ochs HD, Lee BN, Cohen EN, Reuben JM, Cheng I,Thompson B, Butel JS, Blancher A, Abbal A, Aviles H, Sonnenfeld G. “Immune responses in adult female volunteers during the bed-rest model of spaceflight: Antibodies and

cytokines. “ J. Allergy and Clin Immunol . 2009 Apr: 123(4): 900-5.

Jain N, Reuben JM, Kantarjian H, Li C, Gao H, Lee B-N, Cohen EN, Ebarb Theresa, Scheinberg DA, Cortes J. “Synthetic tumor-specific breakpoint peptide vaccine in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia and minimal residual disease: A phase II trial”.

Cancer. Jun 17. [Epub ahead of print]

Martinez GJ, Nurieva RI, Yang XO and Dong C. “Regulation and function of pro-inflammatory TH17 cells”. 2008. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1143, pp. 188-211.

Chung Y, Chang SH, Martinez GJ, Yang XO, Nurieva R, Kang HS, Ma L, Watowich SS, Jetten AM, Tian Q, Dong C. “Critical regulation of early Th17 cell differentiation by interleukin-1 signaling.” 2009. Immunity 30(4):576-87.

Nurieva RI, Chung Y, Martinez GJ, Yang XO, Tanaka S, Matskevitch TD, and Dong C. “Regulation of T follicular helper cell generation by Bcl6.” 2009. Science. July 23 [Epub ahead of print]

Martinez GJ and Dong C. “BATF: Bringing (in) Another Th17-regulating Factor.” 2009. Journal of Molecular Cell Biology. In press

Stonier SW, Ma LJ, Castillo EF, and Schluns KS. “Dendritic cells drive memory CD8 T-cell homeostasis via IL-15 transpresentation.” Blood. 2008.112: 4546-4554

Sikora AG, Jaffarzad N, Hailemichael Y, Gelbard A, Stonier SW, Schluns KS, Frasca L, Lou Y, Liu C, Andersson HA, Hwu P, and Overwijk WW. “IFN-a Enhances Peptide Vaccine-Induced CD8+ T Cell Numbers, Effector Function, and Antitumor Activity.” J Immunol. 2009. 182: 7398-7407.

2008-2009 Graduate Student Abstract presentations

Gao H, Lucci A, Cohen EN, Lee BN, Li C, Krishnamurthy S, Andreopoulou E, De Giorgi U, Hortobagyi GN, Cristofanilli M, Woodward WA, Reuben JM. Primary tumor size is associated with ALDHbr breast cancer initiating stem cells in bone marrow aspirates of primary breast cancer patients. San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium,

San Antonio, TX, December 10-14, 2008.

Li C, Pusztai L, Cohen EN, Symmans WF, Wang B, Lee, BN, Hortobagyi GN, Cristofanilli M, Reuben JM. Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) in Fine Needle Aspirates Containing Inflammatory Breast Cancer Cells. San Antonio Breast Cancer

Symposium, San Antonio, TX, December 10-14, 2008.

Lee BN, Li C, Lucci A., Cohen EN, Gao H, Krishnamurthy S, Ueno NT, Hortobagyi GN, Cristofanilli M, Woodward WA, Reuben JM.. Notch-1 expression is not related to the percentage of cd326+ cells in bone marrow aspirates of patients with primary breast cancer. San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, San Antonio, TX, December

10-14, 2008.

Cohen EN, Jimenez C, Gao H, Lee BN, Li C, Krishnamurthy S, Woodward WA, Andreopoulou E, Bethancourt DL, Hortobagyi GN, Cristofanilli M, Reuben JM. Immune cells from pleural fluids of patients with inflammatory breast cancer are immune competent. San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, San Antonio, TX,

December 10-14, 2008.

Gao H, Ferrajoli A, Cohen EN, Lee B-N, Tin S, O'Brien S, Wierda WG, Estrov Z, Faderl S, Keating MJ, Reuben JM. Treatment with Lenalidomide has a positive immunomodulatory effect in patients with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. ASH

Annual Meeting and Exposition, 2008.

Mego M, Lucci A, Li C, Mani S, Ueno NT, Cohen EN, Gao H, Tin S, Dde Giorgi U, Hortobagyi GN, Cristofanilli M, Reuben JM. Epethelial meshenchymal transition is involved in bone marrow dissemnination of breast cancer cells. 100th Annual

Meeting AACR April 18-22, 2009. Denver, CO. (Abstract 5414).

Mego M, Li C, Mani S, Cohen EN, Gao H, Tin S, De Giorgi U, Champlin R, Hortobagyi G, Cristofanilli M, Ueno NT, Reuben JM. Loss of epithelial markers on CTC triggered by TWIST1 and SNAIL1 may lead to recurrent disease in breast cancer patients. 100th Annual Meeting AACR April 18-22, 2009. Denver, CO.

(Abstract 5416).

De Giorgi U, Lucci A, Cohen EN, Gao H, Li C, Cristofanilli M, Reuben J. Subsets of Mesechymal Stem Cells Correlate With Breast Cancer-Propagating Cells in Bone Marrow. 100th Annual Meeting AACR April 18-22, 2009. Denver, CO. (Oral Presentation by Di Giorgi. Minisymposium: Cancer Stem Cell Approaches for

Identification and Targeting).

Reuben JM, Lee BN, Lucci A, Gao H, Cohen EN, Li C, Krishnamurthy S, Hortobagyi GN, Woodward W, Cristofanilli M. Disseminated tumor cells in primary breast cancer: Higher percentage of breast cancer stem cells in bone marrow aspirates of patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy. 2009 ASCO Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL. J Clin Oncol 27:15s, 2009 (suppl; abstr 505). (Oral Presentation by J Reuben. Breast Cancer Stem Cells: Characterization and

Potential Significance (Clinical Science Symposium))

Martinez GJ, Yang XO, Nurieva R, Kang HS, Cheng Y, Chang SH, Feng XH, Jetten AM and Dong C. “Molecular interaction of regulatory T cells and Th17 genetic programs”. Keystone meeting: TH17 Cells in Health and Disease (F1). Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Feb 5

th-10

th 2009. (poster)

Stonier SW and Schluns KS. “Characterization of Cell Surface IL-15 Expression by Myeloid Cell Populations.” Keystone Symposia Conference: Immunologic memory and Host Defense. Feb 8-13, 2009. (oral, poster)

Ni X, Shiue L, Mendoza PA, Aakhus E, Hosing C, Duvic M. “Foxp3 Expression is Induced in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells from Patients with CTCL and GVHD after Extracorporeal Photopheresis.”. American Society of Hematology,

2008 (poster)

Shiue LH, Aakhus E, Arias-Mendoza P, Duvic M, Ni X. “Increased levels of CD4+25high regulatory T cells in patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma after extracorporeal photopheresis. Society For Investigative Dermatology, May 5

th-9

th,

2009. Montreal, Canada 2009 (oral and poster)

Dougherty A, Shiue L, Prieto V, Bassett R, Ni X, and Duvic M. “Increased Syndecan-4 expression in malignant T -lymphocytes is associated with progression in Mycosis Fungoides.” Society For Investigative Dermatology, May

5th

-9th

, 2009. Montreal, Canada 2009 (oral and poster)

Chung J-S, Shiue L, Tomihari M, Duvic M, Cruz Jr PD, Ariizumi K. “Exploiting the DC-HIL/syndecan-4 pathway to treat cutaneous T cell lymphoma.” Society For Investigative Dermatology, May 5

th-9

th, 2009. Montreal, Canada 2009 (oral and

poster)

Shaw JL, Wang YH, Ito T, Arima K and Liu Y-J. Plasmacytoid dendritic cells regulate B cell growth and differentiation via CD70. Keystone Symposium -

Dendritic Cells, April 2009.

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Fall 2009

2008-2009 Graduate Student Awards

2008 Vivian L. Smith Award for Outstanding Young Immunologist

Eliseo Castillo (Dr. Kimberly Schluns)

2009 Andrew Sowell - Wade Huggins Scholarship in Cancer Research

Gustavo J. Martinez (Dr. Chen Dong)

2009 Alfred G. Knudson, Jr. Outstanding Dissertation Award Pornpimon (Yee)Angkasekwinai (Dr. Chen Dong)

2009 Immunology Program Travel Awards

Dipyaman Ganguly (Dr Michel Gilliet)


Lisa Shiue (Dr. Madeleine Duvic)

Pornpimon (Yee) Angkasekwinai (Dr. Chen Dong)

2009 GSBS Travel Awards

Lisa Shiue (Dr. Madeleine Duvic)

2008-2009 Graduate Student Fellowships Awards

2006-2010 Faculty & Alumni Merit Fellowship Award

Lenka Hurton (Dr. Laurence Cooper)

2008 & 2009 Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS) T32 Training Grant

Lenka Hurton (Dr. Laurence Cooper) 2008

Lisa Shiue (Dr. Madeleine Duvic) 2009

Hillary Gibbons (Dr Laurence Cooper) 2009

Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program Predoctoral Fellowship – 11/1/2008 – 10/31/2011

Evan Cohen (Dr. James Reuben)

2009 Schissler Foundation M. D. Anderson Fellowship in Cancer Research


2008 Research Supplement to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research, Minority Supplement (NIH)

Tania Rodriguez (Dr. Patrick Hwu)

2009 American Legion Auxiliary Fellowship

Denise Kellar (Dr Laurence Cooper)

2008-2009 Immunology Faculty Awards

2009 Dallas/Fort Worth Living Legend Faculty Achievement Award in Basic Research

Yong-Jun Liu, M.D., Ph.D.

2009 Otis W. and Pearl L. Walters Faculty Achievement Award in Clinical Research

Eugenie S. Kleinerman, M.D.

2009 William Randolph Hearst Foundations Faculty Achievement Award in Education

Stephanie S. Watowich, Ph.D.

2008 Dean’s Teaching Excellence Award. UT Medical School

Jeffrey K. Actor, Ph.D.

2008 Problem Based Learning: Outstanding Facilitator Award. UT Medical School


2008 Outstanding Support of the Summer Research Program Award. UT Medical School


MD Anderson Cancer Center Multi-Year Appointment Award. Sept. 1, 2009 - Aug. 31, 2012

Laszlo Radvanyi, Ph.D.

Wei Cao, Ph.D.*Assistant Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Immunology Interests: pDC, DC, innate immune responses, immune regulation, immune receptors, signaling receptor complex, signal transduction, human immunology, autoimmune diseases *Seeking Students

Chen Dong, Ph.D. Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Immunology Interests: Immune tolerance and autoimmune mechanisms, signal transduction in the immune system, cytokines and inflammation, tumor immunology

Madeleine Duvic, M.D. Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Dermatology Professor U. T. Medical School - Houston

Interests: Translational research in the molecular patho-genesis and immunology of T cell mediated disorders (cutaneous lymphomas, psoriasis, alopecia areata) and skin cancers, clinical drug development for lymphoma/ melanoma and skin cancer involving retinoids/histone deacetylase inhibitors/targeted antibodies and fusion toxin

Michel Gilliet, M.D. Associate Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Immunology

Interests: DC-vaccination for cancer, plas-macytoid dendritic cells (PDC) in immunity, PDC in autoimmunity and cancer

Elizabeth Grimm, Ph.D. Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Experimental Therapeutics Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology

Interests: Activation of cytotoxic lympho-cytes, tumor immunology, lymphokines and monokines, immunotherapy of solid tumors, mechanisms of human tumor regression

Patrick Hwu, M.D.* Professor and Chairman M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology Interests: Cancer immunology, cancer vaccines, tumor immunotherapy *Seeking Students

Eugenie Kleinerman, M.D.* Professor and Head M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Division of Pediatrics Department of Cancer Biology Interests: Fas/FasL, angiogenesis, vascu-logenesis, biologic response modifiers, liposome drug delivery, clinical monitoring, osteosarcoma, Ewing’s sarcoma, VEG *Seeking Students

Larry Kwak, M.D., Ph.D. Professor and Chairman M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma Interests: Tumor immunology, cancer vac-cines, adoptive T-cell therapy, lymphoma and myeloma

Xin Lin, Ph.D. Associate Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology Interests: Signal transduction, activation of NF-kB family of transcription factors, protein phosphorylation, lymphocyte activation/development/differentiation, cell proliferation and tumorigenesis

Yong-Jun Liu, M.D., Ph.D. Professor and Chairman M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Immunology Interests: Innate immunity, dendritic cell biology, T cell biology, cytokine biology, vaccine for cancers and viral infectious diseases

Gregory Lizee, Ph.D. Assistant Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology Interests: Tumor immunology, Immunosup-pression, dendritic cells, antigen cross-presentation, Cancer vaccines

Qing Ma, Ph.D.* Assistant Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Stem Cell Transplantation Interests: Chemokine and cytokine biology, transplant immunology, cancer biology, hematopoiesis, stem cell biology *Seeking Students

Hector Martinez-Valdez, M.D., Ph.D. Associate Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Immunology Interests: B lymphocyte physiology and pathology, immunoglobulin genes including surrogate light chain (Psi LC) structure and function, antigen (Ag)-dependent B lympho-cyte maturation and selection, regulation of cell survival and apoptosis

Jeffrey K. Actor, Ph.D. Professor U. T. Health Science Center at Houston Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Interests: Examination of host immune responses during parasitic disease, under-standing proinflammatory and regulatory cytokines during mycobacterial infections, vaccine development, molecular mechanisms of Lactoferrin immunomodulation

Michael Braun, M.D. Associate Professor U. T. Health Science Center at Houston The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases Interests: Immune mediated renal disease, glomerulonephritis, complement biology, anaphylatoxins, adaptive immunity, factor H deficiency, lupus nephritis

Tommy C. Douglas, Ph.D. Associate Professor U. T. Health Science Center at Houston Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Interests: Immunogenetics, antibody genes, gene expression, immunology, differentiation

Scott Drouin, Ph.D. Assistant Professor U. T. Health Science Center at Houston The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases Interests: Regulation of airway epithelial cells by mediators of the innate immune system, lung, asthma, COPD, complement system, immunology, cell biology, molecular biology

David L. Haviland, Ph.D. Assistant Professor U. T. Health Science Center at Houston The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases Interests: Immunology, complement, inflammation, chemotaxis, proinflammatory receptors, gene regulation, flow cytometry

Anil Kulkarni, Ph.D. Professor U. T. Health Science Center at HoustonDepartment of Surgery Interests: Nutritional nucleotides, AHCC,oligonol and functional foods, immune system

Yahuan Lou, Ph.D. Professor U. T. Health Science Center at Houston - Dental Branch Department of Diagnostic Science

Interests: Autoimmunity, immune tolerance, cellular immunology: animal models


FACULTY

Chinnaswamy Jagan-nath, PhD Associate Professor U. T. Health Science Center at Houston Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Interests: Intracellular infections, drug and vaccine development, M. tuberculosis and M. avium, macrophage model, mouse model

Disclaimers: This newsletter cannot guarantee 100% accuracy of the data provided thus all data needs to be verified with the respective faculty. The pictures, titles, and any other information regarding the faculty represented may be inaccurate and if there is a misrepresentation, it is because of an error in data gathering and not meant as a purposeful act of defamation, belittlement, or contempt. Most pictures were gathered from the general faculty directory of their respective institutions but some pictures were either given by the faculty or found on separate webpages. Additionally, it may be possible that faculty, who are part of the “M. D. Anderson and U. T. Health Science Center’s GSBS Immunology Graduate Program,” are missing from this page. Thus, this page is not a definitive or official list of faculty. If any faculty was excluded it was due to error in data gathering that was in no way an act of purposeful exclusion of a faculty member or a group of faculty members. All in all, any error in this page was solely a non-premeditated error/accident. A faculty’s interest in students changes constantly. The “Seeking Students” status report is based on a very informal email survey, and the status has only been noted for faculty who responded to the survey conducted on July 2009. Thus, it is best to contact faculty on their latest interest in taking students.

Xiao-Feng Qin, Ph.D.Assistant Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Immunology Interests: Immune signaling, gene regulation, RNA interference, hematopoietic stem cell biology, cell- and gene-based immunotherapy

Laszlo Radvanyi, Ph.D. Associate Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology-Research Interests: Tumor immunology, cancer vac-cine development, adoptive T-cell therapy, antigen discovery and characterization for immunotherapy of cancer

Ellen R. Richie, Ph.D. Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Carcinogenesis Interests: Thymus organogenesis, thymic epithelial-thymocyte interactions, T cell development and homeostasis

Jagannadha K. Sastry, Ph.D.** Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Immunology Interests: HIV-AIDS, cervical cancer, vaccines, cellular immunology, synthetic peptides **Seeking Funded Students

Kimberly Schluns, Ph.D. Assistant Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Immunology Interests: Regulation of T cell homeostasis, CD8 T cell responses to infections, genera-tion and maintenance of memory CD8 T cells, development of intestinal lymphocyte populations

Stephen E. Ullrich, Ph.D. Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Immunology Interests: Mechanisms underlying UV-induced immune suppression, the immunotoxicology of jet fuel

Stephanie S. Watowich, Ph.D.* Associate Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Immunology Interests: Hematopoiesis, cytokines, STAT transcription factors, dendritic cell develop-ment, neutrophils, signal transduction *Seeking Students

Qing Yi, Ph.D. Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer CenterDepartment of Lymphoma and Myeloma Interests: Tumor immunology, immunotherapy, dendritic cell vaccination, antibody therapy, myeloma mouse models, multiple myeloma

Chengming Zhu, Ph.D. Assistant Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Immunology Interests: Mouse models for lymphocyte development, mechanism and regulation of programmed and general DNA recombination/repair, genomic stabilitiy, tumorigenesis in the lymphoid system

Rick A. Wetsel, Ph.D. Professor U. T. Health Science Center at Houston The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases Interests: Understanding the molecular events involved in mediating the inflamma-tory and immune response in both normal and pathological conditions. The develop-ment of novel therapeutics via embryonic stem cell research.

Shao-Cong Sun, Ph.D.* Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Immunology Interests: Signal transduction, protein ubiquit-ination and deubiquitination, NF-kB activation, lymphocyte development and activation, autoimmunity and inflammation, antiviral and antibacterial innate immunity, cancer biology *Seeking Students

Bradley W. McIntyre, Ph.D.* Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Immunology Interests: Cellular and molecular immunolo-gy, regulation of T cells, antigen recognition, lymphocyte activation and adhesion, integrin receptors, signal trandsuction, cytoskeleton, cell motility *Seeking Students

Kapil Mehta, Ph.D. Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Experimental Therapeutics Interests: Development of resistance to a wide range of chemotherapeutic drugs and metastasis pose major impediment in successful treatment of cancer. Our laboratory is investigating intrinsic pathways/proteins that are deregulated in cancer cells and contribute to the development of these phenotypes. Another area of research in our lab is targeted delivery of drugs, using liposomes as delivery system.

Jeffrey J. Molldrem, M.D. Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Stem Cell Transplantation Interests: Tumor immunity, transplant immunology, T cell tolerance mechanisms

Sattva S. Neelapu, M.D. Assistant Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma Interests: Tumor immunology, Cancer vaccines, novel tumor antigen discovery, adoptive T-cell therapy, immunological monitoring, Lymphoma

Willem Overwijk, Ph.D.* Assistant Professor M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology Interests: Cancer vaccines, cancer immuno-therapy, cancer immunology, T cell biology, plasmacytoid dendritic cells *Seeking Students

Steven Norris, Ph.D. Professor U. T. Health Science Center at Houston Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Interests: Pathogenesis and its relationship to the molecular genetics of invasive bacteria

Nami McCarty, Ph.D.* Assistant Professor U. T. Health Science Center at HoustonInstitute of Molecular Medicine Centre for Stem Cell Research

Interests: Human and mouse stem cell differen-tiation, gene regulation, RNAi, hematopoietic stem cell development, T/B cell development and differentiation, autoimmune diseases *Seeking Students


FACULTY

Dr. Omar Duramad is a relatively recent graduate of the Immunology Program at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. He did his graduate work under the supervision of Dr. Xiaofeng Qin in the Department of Immunology at MD Anderson where he studied regulatory T cells in the tumor microenvironment. He defended his thesis in 2007 and subsequently moved to Mountain View, CA where he began working for REGiMMUNE, a biotech company specializing in harnessing immunoregulatory mechanisms to treat diseases.

Currently Omar is a Principal Scientist at REGiMMUNE where he is working to determine how certain compounds function to expand regulatory T cells in various diseases and immune disorders, such as autoimmunity and transplant tolerance. Along with laboratory duties, Omar has the opportunity to interact with colleagues in various fields such as business development, patent law, and clinicians.

As a student, we often find ourselves wondering if a career in industry versus academia would better suit us. When asked how he made his choice, Omar responded: “Having seen many post-docs struggle with their long term career goals, I decided to send out my CV to several biotech companies to gauge their interest in a soon-to-be-graduate without post-doc experience.” As history would soon show, Omar would be offered a position and would begin working with REGiMMUNE after graduation. Omar cautions, however, that industry may not be for everyone: “Research in industry is very different from academia . . . as the pace is much faster than the typical academic lab.”

Industry functions to provide customers, ultimately the market, with their unmet demands and as such is not driven by the need to publish. Despite this very business-oriented modus operandi, Omar finds his motivation in the opportunity that biotech offers to generate translational research that can be applied from the bench to the bedside.

By Spencer Stonier

NEWSFLASH!

NorthCampus‐FlowCytometry(FC)andCellularImagingCore

Facility(CICF)expandssystems

TheNorthCampusLocationoftheFC&CICFhasexpanded

itsImagingSystemstoincludethenewCRiNuanceMultiSpectral

ImagingSystem.Thisimagingsystemexaminestheentirevisible

spectruminsteadofpeakemissionsforfluorescentandcolorimetric

signals.Thisallowsforveryaccuratequantitativedatatobe

collectedwhenthepropercontrolsareused.Thissystemisgreatfor

sampleswithhighautofluorescentbackgroundsorweaksignals.The

facilityisalsoupgradingthelivecellconfocalmicroscope(DSU)with

anewlightsource,asiliconemersionlens,andamuchimproved

filtersystemallowingformorerapiddatacollection.The

multispectralimagingsystem,livecellconfocal(DSU),andlaser

scanningconfocal(FV500)areallcurrentlyavailableforuse.Weare

alsoaddingseveralnewdataanalysismachinesaswellasadata

server.

TheFlowCytometrySystemsontheNorthCampuswilladd

Beckman‐Coulter’snewGalliosFlowCytometerAnalysisSystem

includingthenewoff‐lineSoftwareKaluza.Thisinstrumentwill

deliverexceptionalsensitivityandautomationforupto10colors,

whiletheSoftwareprovidesinnovativemulti‐dimensionaldisplay.

Thesortinginstrumentofchoice,theAria,willbeupgradedtoanAria

II,andadditionalanalysisstationswithnewmonitorsand

currentversionofBD’sDIVASoftwarewillbeadded.ContactWendy

SchoberorJaredBurksat713792‐7640orvisitusinCRB,T6.3948

SouthCampus‐NewEquipmentatFlowCytometryandCell

SortingCoreFacility

TheCoreLabishappytoannouncethatwewillbeinstallingtwonew

majorinstrumentsthisJune.WewillbegettinganewBDFACSCantoII8

colorflowcytometerwith96‐wellplatesampler.Thiscouldbeagreat

timesaverforflowassaysthatcanberunandstainedinplates.Wewill

alsobegettinganewBDInfluxCellSorter.Thisisapowerfulnewcell

sorterwith5lasersand14colors.Thesorterwillbeparticularlyusefulin

rarecellisolations,RFPsorting,andapplicationsthatrequireUVexcitation

suchasCa++fluxandsidepopulationsorting.ContacttheKarenDwyer‐

at713‐563‐3345(lab)orstopbyatSCRB3.3123.

UpcomingFlowCytometryUsersGroupMeeting‐Savethe

Dates‐November3&4,2009

FlowTex,thegulfcoastregionalcytometryusers’sgroup,willbehosting

it’sthirdannualconferenceintheTexasMedicalCenteratTrevisio

RestaurantandConferenceCenteronNovember3&4,2009.Pleasesee

http://web.me.com/flowtexformoreinfocomingsoon.Theprogramwill

includespeakersonnewcytometryapplicationsandapostersession.Plan

topresentyourresearchatFlowTex.Ifyouareinterestedincontributing

[email protected].

Catching up with Alumni