The Department of Chemistry invites you to its upcoming departmental seminar on Monday, February 1, at 4:10 p.m. in Fulmer Hall, room 201.
Dr. Anthony DeFranco from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at UC San Francisco will present, “Innate immune recognition and the germinal center antibody response.”
Abstract: The germinal center antibody response is responsible for high affinity, long-lasting antibodies made in response to infections and serves as the basis for efficacy of almost all vaccines. The innate immune recognition by the Toll-like receptors (TLRs) substantially boosts the germinal center adaptive immune response and can therefore provide an adjuvant function to improve vaccines. We have demonstrated that the recognition of nucleic acids by TLR7 or TLR9 boosts the germinal center response both by enhancing the ability of dendritic cells to initiate the T cell component of the adaptive response and by stimulating B cells to enhance the quality of the germinal center response, including production of higher affinity antibodies. Experimental evidence indicates this latter mechanism is important not only for controlling some types of virus infections, but also for production of pathogenic anti-nuclear antibodies in mouse models of human systemic lupus erythematosus, an important autoimmune disease. Thus, manipulation of this pathway is likely to be useful in a variety of situations relevant to human health.
