Inflammation/ Atherosclerosis

Immunology
Cancer
Neurosciences

Aging
Genetics

Effros, Rita, Ph.D.
Research Area: Immune dysfunction associated with aging and chronic infection.

Research Interests: Our research is focused on the immune deficiency of aging and AIDS, with particular emphasis on a novel aspect of T cell biology known as replicative senescence. Replicative senescence describes the irreversible state of growth arrest which all normal human somatic cells reach after a finite number of cell divisions. In addition to the cell cycle arrest, senescent cells show a variety of changes in gene expression and function. We have defined certain characteristics of replicative senescence in human T lymphocytes in cell culture, and have then shown that T cells with these identical characteristics accumulate in the elderly as well as in younger persons infected with HIV. Current studies are focused on defining the pleiotropic effects of senescent CD8 T cells on other aspects of immune function and on bone homeostasis, as well as on testing gene therapy approaches to reverse replicative senescence. I have recently been named to the Elizabeth and Thomas Plott Endowed Chair in Gerontology, and I teach one of the year-long Freshman GE Cluster courses entitled: Frontiers of Human Aging. Finally, I am Director of the Human Tissue-Research Center Shared Resource Core of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, which serves as a centralized unit within the Dept of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine to coordinate the procurement, processing, quality control, and distribution of human tissue samples for research purposes.

TOP

Dorshkind, Ken Ph.D.
Research Area: Cell differentiation in the immune and hematopoietic systems
Research Interests: The aim of work in my laboratory is to define microenvironmental and systemic signals that regulate the development of B and T cells from immature hematopoietic precursors. Much of our work has focused on primary B cell production and has resulted in the identification of bone marrow stromal cell and endocrine derived factors that control growth and differentiation within the B cell developmental pathway. Additional studies are focusing on the regulation of early T cell development by the thymic microenvironment. A long-term, thymic epithelial cell dependent culture system that maintains CD4-CD8- intrathymic progenitors with normal developmental potential has recently been developed and is being used to characterize immature thymocytes and to identify factors that affect early thymopoiesis.

TOP