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Program in Immunology Heersink School of Medicine

Program in Immunology

The multi-disciplinary Program in Immunology consists of over 100 faculty who identify themselves as basic or clinical immunologists and are members of multiple units at UAB.

UAB is the home of internationally prominent research programs. Newer programs in Cancer Immunology, Allergy, Immunogenetics, Inflammation and Tissue Injury, Transplantation Immunology, Neuroimmunology, and Basic Immunology of the T cell and innate systems are poised to become highly competitive.

A brief history of the Program in Immunology at UAB, written by Dr. Claude Bennett

Memory B cell marker predicts long-lived antibody response to flu vaccine

Study by Anoma Nellore, M.D., Fran Lund, Ph.D., and colleagues.

Read more: Memory B cell marker Opens an external link.

UAB researchers and clinicians are developing and testing new and improved vaccines

For diseases from influenza to HIV to COVID.

Past, Present, and Future of Vaccines Opens an external link.

Inventions that flowed from basic bacterial research have led faculty to be named senior members of the National Academy of Inventors.

Michael Niederweis, Ph.D., and Moon Nahm, M.D.

Two UAB faculty named Senior Members by the National Academy of Inventors Opens an external link.

Beatriz Leon-Ruiz, Ph.D.

In a study published in the Nature Journal Cellular & Molecular Immunology, Beatriz Leon-Ruiz, PhD and colleagues report an unrecognized mechanism of how interrupted IL-6 signaling creates Th2 bias, as well as the specific role of IL-6 signaling in that process.

How interleukin-6 helps prevent allergic asthma and atopy by suppressing interleukin-2 signaling

Jianmei Leavenworth, M.D., Ph.D.

The American Association of Immunologists (AAI), in partnership with eBioscience, Inc., recently announced that Jianmei Leavenworth, M.D., Ph.D, associate professor in the UAB Department of Neurosurgery, is the recipient of the 2023 Lustgarten-Thermo Fisher Scientific Memorial Award.

Leavenworth receives 2023 Lustgarten-Thermo Fisher Scientific Memorial Award

Tanecia Mitchell, Ph.D.

Tanecia Mitchell, Ph.D., Assistant Professor with the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Urology, has been awarded an $2.7 million R01 grant to investigate the role of dietary oxalate on immune function in kidney stone disease.

Mitchell awarded $2.7 million R01 grant for kidney stone disease research

Robert A. Kesterson, PhD - Selected Recent Publications in Peer Reviewed Journals

Details

Morabito MV, Abbas AI, Hood JL, Kesterson RA, Jacobs MM, Kump DS, Hachey DL, Roth BL, Emeson RB. 2010. Mice with altered serotonin 2C receptor RNA editing display characteristics of Prader-Willi syndrome. Neurobiol Dis. 39(2):169-80. PMID: 20394819


O'Connor AK, Kesterson RA, Yoder BK. 2009. Generating conditional mutants to analyze ciliary functions: the use of Cre-lox technology to disrupt cilia in specific organs. Methods Cell Biol. 93:305-30. PMID: 20409823


Kesterson RA, Berbari NF, Pasek RC, Yoder BK. 2009. Utilization of conditional alleles to study the role of the primary cilium in obesity. Methods Cell Biol. 94:163-79. PMID: 20362090


Cope MB, Li X, Jumbo-Lucioni P, DiCostanzo CA, Jamison WG, Kesterson RA, Allison DB, Nagy TR. 2009. Risperidone alters food intake, core body temperature, and locomotor activity in mice. Physiol Behav. 96(3):457-63. PMID: 19084548


Kumar KG, Trevaskis JL, Lam DD, Sutton GM, Koza RA, Chouljenko VN, Kousoulas KG, Rogers PM, Kesterson RA, Thearle M, Ferrante AW Jr, Mynatt RL, Burris TP, Dong JZ, Halem HA, Culler MD, Heisler LK, Stephens JM, Butler AA. 2008. Identification of adropin as a secreted factor linking dietary macronutrient intake with energy homeostasis and lipid metabolism. Cell Metab. 8(6):468-81. PMID: 19041763


Brooks WS, Helton ES, Banerjee S, Venable M, Johnson L, Schoeb TR, Kesterson RA, Crawford DF. 2008. G2E3 is a dual function ubiquitin ligase required for early embryonic development. J Biol Chem. 283(32):22304-15. PMID: 18511420


Zinn KR, Chaudhuri TR, Szafran AA, O'Quinn D, Weaver C, Dugger K, Lamar D, Kesterson RA, Wang X, Frank SJ. 2008. Noninvasive bioluminescence imaging in small animals. ILAR J. 49(1):103-15. PMID: 18172337


Chen M, Aprahamian CJ, Kesterson RA, Harmon CM, Yang Y. 2007. Molecular identification of the human melanocortin-2 receptor responsible for ligand binding and signaling. Biochemistry. 46(40):11389-97. PMID: 17877367


Davenport JR, Watts AJ, Roper VC, Croyle MJ, van Groen T, Wyss JM, Nagy TR, Kesterson RA, Yoder BK. 2007. Disruption of intraflagellar transport in adult mice leads to obesity and slow-onset cystic kidney disease. Curr Biol. 17(18):1586-94. PMID: 17825558


Yang Y, Chen M, Kesterson RA Jr, Harmon CM. 2007. Structural insights into the role of the ACTH receptor cysteine residues on receptor function. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 293(3):R1120-6. PMID: 17596328


Singh M, Kesterson RA, Jacobs MM, Joers JM, Gore JC, Emeson RB. 2007. Hyperphagia-mediated obesity in transgenic mice misexpressing the RNA-editing enzyme ADAR2. J Biol Chem. ;282(31):22448-59. PMID: 17567573

 

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