Research / Clinical
Summary
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Diseases/Research Topics
Antibodies, B lymphocytes, Immune Regulation, Immunity, Immunobiology, Immunological Memory, T lymphocyte, Vaccines, Virus
Shane Crotty, Ph.D., and his team study immunity against infectious diseases. Specifically, Dr. Crotty’s team investigates how the immune system remembers infections and vaccines. By remembering infections and vaccines the body is protected from becoming infected by the disease in the future. Vaccines are one of the most cost-effective medical treatments in modern civilization and are responsible for saving millions of lives. Yet, good vaccines are very difficult to design, and a better understanding of immune memory will facilitate the ability to make new vaccines against new and old diseases.
Dr. Crotty’s team has discovered that anti-smallpox B cells—cells responsible for producing antibodies against smallpox virus—remain present and active in the human body for up to 60 years after immunization with the smallpox vaccine. By analyzing the similarities and differences between the smallpox vaccine and less effective vaccines, it is the goal of Dr. Crotty and his laboratory to decipher the secrets of generating lifelong immune memory.
Another way Dr. Crotty’s team studies immune memory is by understanding the function of a gene called SAP (or SH2D1A). This gene is mutated in the human genetic disease called XLP (X-linked lymphoproliferative disease), and people affected by this disease are immunodeficient and usually die from infectious diseases before reaching adulthood. Dr. Crotty has discovered that the SAP gene plays a central role in generation of immune memory. Understanding the role of SAP in greater detail may help XLP patients and may, more broadly, allow for the design of better human vaccines that take advantage of SAP’s important role in the process of generating immune memory.
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