Mortality from infectious diseases remains a leading cause of death worldwide, making the development of new vaccines an important priority of biomedical research. Immunologic memory is a cardinal feature of adaptive immunity and an important goal of vaccination strategies. Traditional vaccination strategies are very effective at generating neutralizing antibodies against bacteria and viruses. However, a vaccine capable of generating robust T lymphocyte memory is still beyond our research, due, in part, to an incomplete understanding of the molecular basis of lymphocyte fate specification. In this proposal, we will develop single-cell approaches to study specification of lymphocyte fates in response to microbial infection.

Public Health Relevance

T lymphocytes are cells of the immune system that provide protection against infections. Our goal is to understand how these cells are generated and how they function in response to different infections. These studies may help our efforts to improve vaccines.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
3R01AI123202-01A1S1
Application #
9367846
Study Section
Program Officer
Deckhut-Augustine, Alison M
Project Start
2017-05-02
Project End
2018-08-31
Budget Start
2017-05-02
Budget End
2017-08-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2017
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California, San Diego
Department
Internal Medicine/Medicine
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
804355790
City
La Jolla
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
92093
Widjaja, Christella E; Olvera, Jocelyn G; Metz, Patrick J et al. (2017) Proteasome activity regulates CD8+ T lymphocyte metabolism and fate specification. J Clin Invest 127:3609-3623
Song, Yan; Botvinnik, Olga B; Lovci, Michael T et al. (2017) Single-Cell Alternative Splicing Analysis with Expedition Reveals Splicing Dynamics during Neuron Differentiation. Mol Cell 67:148-161.e5