Associate Investigator, Vitalant Research Institute; Adjunct Associate Professor, USCF
Vitalant Research Institute
San Fransisco, California
My long-term research goals are to improve our understanding of the wide range of immune consequences to allogeneic exposure and to identify methods to modulate these responses to protect against alloimmunization and rejection. I have a strong background in cellular biology, transfusion medicine, molecular biology, genetics, and biochemistry, with exceptional training in immunology, and experience with both human subjects and animal models. My graduate work looked at how different subsets of T helper cells communicate with antigen presenting cells through differential organization of the immunological synapse, and how this is regulated by expression of costimulatory molecules. This work gave me a great deal of insight into the balance of activating and inhibitory signals involved in interactions between cells of the immune system, and strong training in basic cellular immunology. Over the last 18 years I have been working at Vitalant Research Institute (VRI, formerly Blood Systems Research Institute) in the field of transfusion immunology. I began my work at VRI studying transfusion immunology in humans, with a particular interest in alloimmunization, tolerance, and immunomodulation caused by traumatic injury and pathogen reduction, and soon began to complement this work with animal models, applying expertise from my graduate training. Over the last 17 years I have successfully developed and worked with novel murine models of trauma, blood transfusion, pathogen reduction, chemotherapy, and infection and their impact on immune responsiveness and alloimmunization. I have also continued my work with clinical samples studying the regulation of alloimmunization resulting from transfusion or other exposures such as pregnancy, and how these outcomes are influenced by underlying disease and clinical intervention, which has been an important complement to my work with animal models.
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