Abstract

Title: NK cells in host immunity

Abstract: Immunological memory is a hallmark feature of the mammalian adaptive immune response and essential for prolonged host control of pathogens. Although these features are attributed to T and B cells, previous work has demonstrated that natural killer (NK) cells, which have traditionally been categorized as a component of innate immunity, also possess the ability to undergo clonal proliferation and generate memory in response to pathogens. Here, we seek to understand and dissect novel molecular pathways that underlie these “adaptive” NK cell responses during cytomegalovirus infection. Our findings uncover a previously unrecognized, host protective role for Wnt signaling in NK cell-mediated antiviral immunity, with implications for the design of novel NK cell therapies.

Bio: Joseph Sun received his PhD in immunology in 2005, having trained with Mike Bevan in CD8 + T cell memory as a graduate student at the University of Washington. As a postdoc with Lewis Lanier at UCSF from 2006-2010, he discovered that natural killer cells possess adaptive immune features including clonal expansion and long-lived memory following viral infection. He was recruited to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in 2010 by Jim Allison, and his lab has been interested in defining the underlying epigenetic, transcriptional, and metabolic signals that govern innate and adaptive lymphocyte responses in host defense against pathogens and cancer.

Hosts Dr Tim Halim, CRUK & Dr Virginia Pedicord, CITIID