Immune Defense | Overview
Immune defense is the coordinated, complicated interplay of cellular mechanisms and antibodies to fight disease-causing agents, including viruses, bacteria, and other types of infection.
A prime example of our research in immune defense is an aggressive study of the role and specificity of a key element in our adaptive immune system: how killer T cells eliminate infectious cells.
Significant progress has occurred in understanding how a vaccine based on a protein derived from a common bacterium may prompt a potent T cell defense against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This work will have substantial impact in a more general understanding of how T cells can be marshaled to fight viruses and tumors.
Investigators have identified the following scientific challenges in this area of concentration:
- Understanding the regulation of T cell response in chronic infections
- Understanding how to regulate and manipulate killer T cells at the molecular level
- Discovering the role of programmed cell death (apoptosis) in immune defense
- Methods for inducing T cells specific for cancer and for viruses
PCMM Scientists studying immune defense
 Anne Goldfeld |
 Sun Hur |
 Tom Kirchhausen |
 Judy Lieberman |
 Eileen Remold-O'Donnell |
 Florian Winau |
 Hao Wu
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